Strouty
Well-known member
Mine is only two 350s. 
My Garage Machine Shop
- Thread starter A_Pmech
- Start date
Strouty
Well-known member
The same as each other or the same as yours?
The same as mine.
Strouty
Well-known member
I was thinking that, I sure hope both of mine look like each other!
Now I am really thinking I need to get my *** in gear. My schedule is messed up this week, I bought and sold another big grinder, gotta get it shipped to 8 mile!
Now I am really thinking I need to get my *** in gear. My schedule is messed up this week, I bought and sold another big grinder, gotta get it shipped to 8 mile!
The current wrist pin is .875 x 2.875. Big Block Chevies use .990 x 2.930 wrist pins, if I recall correctly. I'll press out the roller bearings and install a bronze bushing in the connecting rod. Then, I'll re-bore the pistons to fit the new larger piston pin.
There's no light dimming that I'm aware of! My power company takes care of me.
I was just looking at your thread and it looks like you're making good progress with the barn. I wish I had a work crew like that!
Sounds like a good plan of attack! Nice use of BBC pins.
The crew was certainly a huge help. Of course, it came at a price. 3 cases of beer and some home cooked meals. Well worth it though!
36 beers and some food is cheap!
I was going to make some custom pins and was rooting around the scrap bin when it hit me that BBC pins would work. That saves a LOT of time!
Strouty
Well-known member
The compressor will go faster too.
Todd.Brock
Well-known member
It's funny, I was rooting around my scrap wrist pin bin and was thinking about tossing out all those ***, BBQ, and BBC pins.
I can not wait to see the process of correcting the Pistons with big block Chevy pieces. Awesome work as always . Todd
I can not wait to see the process of correcting the Pistons with big block Chevy pieces. Awesome work as always . Todd
Strouty
Well-known member
Any updates? I need some motivation.
Tinker Man
Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2015
- Messages
- 10
I like your shop even though I think I see lots of white stuff on the ground... but... I'd like it in a warmer climate.
That compressor I see in your pictures is a real monster. My neighbor has two of those monsters, that's how I wound up with the 240 roc 8 and the 325 roc 7 units.
I found reasonably priced "new" pistons for the 325... or I say reasonable at both for 227. There supposed to arrive monday.
I'm still looking for that 4 inch piston. I may have to get a diesel piston, pin and rings for the 240. I'm going by summit racing, here in GA, in a couple of weeks and talk with them. the 240 has 3 compression rings and 1 oil ring.
If you still need parts you might find some at the Compressorpartsstore.com ... that's where I found the 325 pistons and their prices were excellent.
Good weekend to you, Ken
That compressor I see in your pictures is a real monster. My neighbor has two of those monsters, that's how I wound up with the 240 roc 8 and the 325 roc 7 units.
I found reasonably priced "new" pistons for the 325... or I say reasonable at both for 227. There supposed to arrive monday.
I'm still looking for that 4 inch piston. I may have to get a diesel piston, pin and rings for the 240. I'm going by summit racing, here in GA, in a couple of weeks and talk with them. the 240 has 3 compression rings and 1 oil ring.
If you still need parts you might find some at the Compressorpartsstore.com ... that's where I found the 325 pistons and their prices were excellent.
Good weekend to you, Ken
Trey T
Well-known member
Where will the Quincy be located, inside or outside of garage?
Hephaestus29
Well-known member
I was wondering how it was working out, having your house over your shop that way.
Is there anything you would do different ?
Do you get any machine oil odors or any odors in your house from the shop ?
I'm curious, did you use PEX water lines that run overhead in your shop for your house, and what about your plumbing ?
Do you ever think you'll close in the ceiling of your shop or are you going to leave it open for easy access to things ?
Is there anything you would do different ?
Do you get any machine oil odors or any odors in your house from the shop ?
I'm curious, did you use PEX water lines that run overhead in your shop for your house, and what about your plumbing ?
Do you ever think you'll close in the ceiling of your shop or are you going to leave it open for easy access to things ?
fergus
Well-known member
Dude, updates???
It's been quite a while and a lot of water has gone under the bridge! In any case, it's time to take a break and make some updates!
Last year, I went on the road as machine shop manager for a large marine construction project in Haiti. I was on the ground there for about a year. Unfortunately, the project wasn't completed due to funding issues, but I had a great experience and learned a new language in the process. By the time I left Haiti, I had 6 weldors ready to pass a AWS 6G pipe test, two good foremen leading crews by themselves and 50% of my crew was able to read blueprints. Considering the complete lack of trade education in Haiti and the heavy deadlines we were under, I think we did pretty well!
One of the many projects we built was a set of quay wall concrete forms. In Haiti, construction materials like form sets are impossible to purchase, so they have to be built from whatever is available. I designed these forms from material on-site and my guys built them over the course of several weeks. They weigh about 12,500 lbs a piece and form up about 500,000lbs of concrete:
Last year, I went on the road as machine shop manager for a large marine construction project in Haiti. I was on the ground there for about a year. Unfortunately, the project wasn't completed due to funding issues, but I had a great experience and learned a new language in the process. By the time I left Haiti, I had 6 weldors ready to pass a AWS 6G pipe test, two good foremen leading crews by themselves and 50% of my crew was able to read blueprints. Considering the complete lack of trade education in Haiti and the heavy deadlines we were under, I think we did pretty well!
One of the many projects we built was a set of quay wall concrete forms. In Haiti, construction materials like form sets are impossible to purchase, so they have to be built from whatever is available. I designed these forms from material on-site and my guys built them over the course of several weeks. They weigh about 12,500 lbs a piece and form up about 500,000lbs of concrete:
Going automated....
I always knew that eventually I'd be going automated. In fact, from the moment I started in the manual machine shop business, I knew that one day I would spend my time in front of the computer while my shop made the product.
Knowing that, I spent a large portion of my time preparing for that eventuality. I guess you could say I've been preparing for it since I was a kid. My dad, a hardware and software developer, among other talents, made it priority that I learn to code and build hardware from an early age.
In any case, my early background in all things electronic made the search for robotics much easier. I settled on Kuka as my as our robot brand and, while holding down my full-time job in Haiti, learned their programming language. My partner and I bought our first Kuka, a KR200, several months ago. You can read more about that here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328266
When we grow up, our toys just get bigger:
I always knew that eventually I'd be going automated. In fact, from the moment I started in the manual machine shop business, I knew that one day I would spend my time in front of the computer while my shop made the product.
Knowing that, I spent a large portion of my time preparing for that eventuality. I guess you could say I've been preparing for it since I was a kid. My dad, a hardware and software developer, among other talents, made it priority that I learn to code and build hardware from an early age.
In any case, my early background in all things electronic made the search for robotics much easier. I settled on Kuka as my as our robot brand and, while holding down my full-time job in Haiti, learned their programming language. My partner and I bought our first Kuka, a KR200, several months ago. You can read more about that here:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328266
When we grow up, our toys just get bigger:
The Quincy lives in a 40' cargo container that will soon become our electrical building.
I can't say there's anything I'd do differently. I mean, from my perspective everything is fluid and open for re-design and I've re-designed some of it more than once!
I don't notice shop smells at all from downstairs.
The water is plumbed with PEX, yes. I threw a bunch of temporary tubing in at one point (it's so easy to do!) and then came back and drilled holes and installed it permanently. I love PEX for air as well!
It's always been the plan that when we build a larger shop, the existing shop space will get turned into more living space. That will more or less double the size of the house. That day is coming...
aggierailroad
Well-known member
Glad to see this alive again. Welcome back and congrats on a job well done in Haiti. I sure don't miss difficult job sites and improvising. I hardly slept.
pro_usa1776
New member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2016
- Messages
- 3
Wow,
Very impressive!
Very impressive!
Jim Johnstone
Well-known member
Very cool trip to Haiti. How did that opportunity come about?
Off topic question for you, are you dual ticketed as both an AP mechanic and a machinist?
Off topic question for you, are you dual ticketed as both an AP mechanic and a machinist?
Strouty
Well-known member
Glad to see you are back!
Thanks Aggie!
It was a lot of fun, but yes, there were plenty of sleepless nights.
Strouty,
I'm glad to be back! We're going full steam ahead with some new projects!
Strouty
Well-known member
Sounds like fun, I am going full steam ahead, but I appear to be on a short circle track.
Thread bump time!
We're in the middle of getting Kooky ready to fabricate a new product of ours. Unfortunately, robots aren't born with fingers like we are, so we had to make some for her.
After sketching out a production process, it became evident that what Kooky really needed was a magnet, not fingers! A magnet would allow us to quickly handle the parts and also, via special attachments, perform other operations.
A cursory search of available options wasn't producing anything interesting, so, as usual, we just made one.
Step 1: Learn how to design electromagnets in 1 day or less!
I ordered a few books from the local library, got halfway through the calculus, broke my pencil and said F this! So, I downloaded FEMM instead and point-and-clicked my way to an educated guess of an electromagnet.
More page flipping and a few (dozen) iterations later and voila! Electromagnet:
Step 2: Make the damn thing.
An enjoyable session with a 1" corncob produced this: A slightly lighter piece of 1-1/2" plate!
About this time, I came to the surly realization that there was no way in hell I was going to wind 2,640 turns of #22 magnet wire by hand.
Step 3: Build a CNC magnet coil winding machine from junk in 3 days or less.
I gave us a little more time to build the winding machine than I gave myself to design the magnet. My partner, Xarrax, got to work 3-D printing the coil bobbins and winder parts.
Later on, all those little printed bits got combined with some extruded aluminum to create the complete machine:
Meanwhile, I busied myself with programming the Arduino Nano we dug out of one of our project bins.
Step 4: Assembly! Each coil is wired so that the direction of it's magnetic flux is opposite that of it's neighbor. Flux is additive though the magnetic circuit:
Here it is, ready for epoxy. Rather than spend a bunch of money on encapsulating epoxy, I chose to use some stuff already on the shelf: MGS 385. With a Tg of around 204 F it will squeak by as a Class A insulation.
To be continued...
We're in the middle of getting Kooky ready to fabricate a new product of ours. Unfortunately, robots aren't born with fingers like we are, so we had to make some for her.
After sketching out a production process, it became evident that what Kooky really needed was a magnet, not fingers! A magnet would allow us to quickly handle the parts and also, via special attachments, perform other operations.
A cursory search of available options wasn't producing anything interesting, so, as usual, we just made one.
Step 1: Learn how to design electromagnets in 1 day or less!
I ordered a few books from the local library, got halfway through the calculus, broke my pencil and said F this! So, I downloaded FEMM instead and point-and-clicked my way to an educated guess of an electromagnet.
More page flipping and a few (dozen) iterations later and voila! Electromagnet:
Step 2: Make the damn thing.
An enjoyable session with a 1" corncob produced this: A slightly lighter piece of 1-1/2" plate!
About this time, I came to the surly realization that there was no way in hell I was going to wind 2,640 turns of #22 magnet wire by hand.
Step 3: Build a CNC magnet coil winding machine from junk in 3 days or less.
I gave us a little more time to build the winding machine than I gave myself to design the magnet. My partner, Xarrax, got to work 3-D printing the coil bobbins and winder parts.
Later on, all those little printed bits got combined with some extruded aluminum to create the complete machine:
Meanwhile, I busied myself with programming the Arduino Nano we dug out of one of our project bins.
Step 4: Assembly! Each coil is wired so that the direction of it's magnetic flux is opposite that of it's neighbor. Flux is additive though the magnetic circuit:
Here it is, ready for epoxy. Rather than spend a bunch of money on encapsulating epoxy, I chose to use some stuff already on the shelf: MGS 385. With a Tg of around 204 F it will squeak by as a Class A insulation.
To be continued...
Kooky and the old man...
For our manufacturing process, we needed a heavy duty belt grinder to handle part of the deburring operation. Considering a nearly 4,000 lb robot capable of lifting 400lbs is going to present parts to the grinder, it's important that the belt grinder be a bit heavier than average.
It's no secret that I like heavy machines. The obvious choice to me was a Porter Cable G-8 and luckily for us, we found one on Craigslist.
It's rather ironic that our newest machine will be working with our oldest machine. Our G-8 was built sometime during WWII as evidenced by the War Finish tag!
For our manufacturing process, we needed a heavy duty belt grinder to handle part of the deburring operation. Considering a nearly 4,000 lb robot capable of lifting 400lbs is going to present parts to the grinder, it's important that the belt grinder be a bit heavier than average.
It's no secret that I like heavy machines. The obvious choice to me was a Porter Cable G-8 and luckily for us, we found one on Craigslist.
It's rather ironic that our newest machine will be working with our oldest machine. Our G-8 was built sometime during WWII as evidenced by the War Finish tag!
Strouty
Well-known member
I have a war finish too, just a wee bit smaller than that beast!
rattle_snake
Well-known member
Great thread here. I can only hope my shop will grow up to be a mini version of yours, some day. Kudos on the electrical engineering skills.
Hi LG!
The "pull" of a magnet is related to the thickness of the material it is pulling against, within the saturation limit of the material and magnet.
All magnetic materials "saturate." That is to say, no matter how additional power you apply to an electromagnetic coil, it won't result in appreciably more flux in the core, aka magnetic attraction.
Our magnet saturates on 1/2" plate, while producing in the neighborhood of 1,700lbs of attraction if I recall correctly. In the process, it consumes about 48 watts.
Steve from Socal
Well-known member
Nice catch on the PC grinder, I was looking for one of those and never found one realistically priced. I gave up and bought a Timesaver.
Steve
Steve
250
Well-known member
I like the grinder. And everything else of course, but the grinder is an item that I fully understand.
Thanks Steve! I was surprised I found one, actually. We considered a Timesaver for this operation, but couldn't find one. LOL
250,
It is a very hungry machine!
oldironfarmer
Well-known member
Very interesting effort! great work!
Question about the magnet: will the robot pick up and put down with the magnet? If so, are you worried about residual magnetism in the steel core?
I'm enjoying this
Question about the magnet: will the robot pick up and put down with the magnet? If so, are you worried about residual magnetism in the steel core?
I'm enjoying this
Very interesting effort! great work!
Question about the magnet: will the robot pick up and put down with the magnet? If so, are you worried about residual magnetism in the steel core?
I'm enjoying this
Howdy Iron,
The magnet will be used both to manipulate parts and to manipulate tools used to help make the parts. One of the tools will be a painting arm for use with a fully autonomous paint booth. We'll have a few posts on that soon!
We're building a driver to operate the magnet and I wrote a de-gaussing program for it to handle that issue. Basically, when the magnet is turned off, the control will pass a sine wave though the coil at an exponentially decaying amplitude.
A Paint Booth for Kooky
The product we will be making with Kooky must be painted and we certainly don't want to stand in front of a paint booth all day! So, we'll get Kooky to do it. But first, we need a paint booth.
To start a painting operation, there are some regulations we have to comply with. The biggest one being doing all our painting inside a paint booth that captures 99% of the overspray. We also have to use HVLP equipment to do all our spray painting. These are common-sense regulations and we'd do all of this anyway.
The oft cited generalization that American manufacturers can't compete because of an overly burdensome regulatory environment is patently false. There are no regulatory barriers to manufacturing a product here if you know how to do it and take responsibility for your patch of the environment.
So, let's begin!
The frame is built from 1.5" square tube and covered with 14ga sheet cut on the plasma cutter. Self tapping screws and welding hold it all together.
For the filter trays and filter pans, we cut out 14ga sheet on the plasma and then bent it up into the form we needed.
The final fabricating step involved putting wheels under the whole thing to make it portable.
Putting the paint booth into the robot cell meant relocating one of the shop heaters. When I installed this heater, I used a block and tackle to hold it up to the ceiling long enough to install the threaded rods into the Unistrut. This time, we used the robot and it made things MUCH easer!
The paint booth in it's new home, ready to be hooked up and finished out:
We made some LED lights to go in the top of the paint booth. These are sandwiched between a sheet of glass on the outside of the booth, to keep them isolated from the booth interior. The booth also received 1/8" plate glass windows, which are easier to clean than Plexiglass.
The spray gun going in. It's a Binks Mach 1 Automatic and it will be fed from a 5 gallon pressure pot below the booth:
The product we will be making with Kooky must be painted and we certainly don't want to stand in front of a paint booth all day! So, we'll get Kooky to do it. But first, we need a paint booth.
To start a painting operation, there are some regulations we have to comply with. The biggest one being doing all our painting inside a paint booth that captures 99% of the overspray. We also have to use HVLP equipment to do all our spray painting. These are common-sense regulations and we'd do all of this anyway.
The oft cited generalization that American manufacturers can't compete because of an overly burdensome regulatory environment is patently false. There are no regulatory barriers to manufacturing a product here if you know how to do it and take responsibility for your patch of the environment.
So, let's begin!
The frame is built from 1.5" square tube and covered with 14ga sheet cut on the plasma cutter. Self tapping screws and welding hold it all together.
For the filter trays and filter pans, we cut out 14ga sheet on the plasma and then bent it up into the form we needed.
The final fabricating step involved putting wheels under the whole thing to make it portable.
Putting the paint booth into the robot cell meant relocating one of the shop heaters. When I installed this heater, I used a block and tackle to hold it up to the ceiling long enough to install the threaded rods into the Unistrut. This time, we used the robot and it made things MUCH easer!
The paint booth in it's new home, ready to be hooked up and finished out:
We made some LED lights to go in the top of the paint booth. These are sandwiched between a sheet of glass on the outside of the booth, to keep them isolated from the booth interior. The booth also received 1/8" plate glass windows, which are easier to clean than Plexiglass.
The spray gun going in. It's a Binks Mach 1 Automatic and it will be fed from a 5 gallon pressure pot below the booth:
1/2 Cup
Member Emeritus
A Pmech, now that is one fantastic job on the paint booth...
Regards
Regards
Strouty
Well-known member
What is the PVC tube for?
oldironfarmer
Well-known member
Thanks, guys!
Strout, the PVC pipe is part of the filtration system. Unlike a regular paint booth, a robot booth can recirculate the majority of the air, as there are no easily asphyxiated humans inside.
Iron, the robot doesn't need lights, but we do to program the painting moves.
Strout, the PVC pipe is part of the filtration system. Unlike a regular paint booth, a robot booth can recirculate the majority of the air, as there are no easily asphyxiated humans inside.
Iron, the robot doesn't need lights, but we do to program the painting moves.