# miniature model flight simulator



## hobby (Sep 17, 2010)

Hello everyone,

This is a picture I found off the innernet, of a full size flight simulator,
I would like to try to make a very small miniature working mechanical model of it.







I'm approaching this with a different concept for the hydraulic cylinders, this time I'm building double acting cylinders, using only one hose connector, which will take care of both the push and pull of the piston. Also I' am machining the threads on the outside of the cylinder to hold the top and bottom endcaps, this makes it much more easier to fit the piston to the cylinder, as well as allows the total length of the cylinder to be made smaller with the same amount of piston movement, as when the threads were internal, as before.

I found a real nice way to make miniature pistons, by using loctite thread locker to hold the piston to the rod, and the use of my lathe as a horizontal press.

Here are the steps in making miniature piston and rod assemblies.

First I machine the cylinder with external threads and internal bore.











Then I face the piston stock, and begin with centerdrilling the proper size hole, for the piston rod.






Afterward I set up for the drilling of the rod, 

First, when ever you tighten a chuck key in a drill chuck, sometimes the drill will not line properly up straight out, and the bit goes on a slight angle bending its way into the preveiously drilled starter hole,

 I stumbled on a way to make sure the drill bit and reamers ends up on target everytime, by loosly placing the drill bit in the chuck, locking down the tailstock then holding the bit in the starter hole, begin to tighten the chuck, tighten as tightr as possible, and now the drill or reamer is set to exact target of the starter hole.






Now I drill the hole to required depth for reamer to follow.






Then again with the reamer, I set it in the hole left by the drill and proceed to tighten the chuck.






Now back to the piston build.

So Now the piston blank is drilled and reamed ready for it's rod, I then cut the rod blank, to appropriate length.






Then I file off the extreme large burr left by the sawing, to a taper that will allow the rod to slide into the hole in the piston, easily.











Then I take it back out and file the one end of the rod on top to give a slight burr hanging around its diameter.






Now I place the prepared rod in the tailstock drill chuck with the end with the burr sticking out and tighten it and then add loctite glue to the tip of it.

Then proceed to lock down the tailstock and use it as a horizontal press to press the rod into the piston blank.
















This ensures that the piston rod is going to be square in the piston blank.






A good test is to run the lathe and check for any runout with the rod.






Then I mark it off where it needs to be cut off at and cut it to appropriate length.











Then the rest is machinig the piston with facing cuts and logitudinal cuts until the piston fits the cylinder.


























That's all for now, thanks for watcing.


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## hobby (Sep 17, 2010)

When I used my reamers for the hydraulic cylinders before, they came out good, but they weren't real straight but worked for the experiments I was doing.

But now that i'm building an actual working model, I want the best reaming job I can do with these small dia. cyl. bores.

The problems I was having was with these smaller drills and reamers diameters, I was getting some larger bore at the very begining of the ream and by the time I got to the end of the cylinder the drill and reamer began to tighten up.

I think this is because my tailstock may not be perfectly lined up and also the farther it is extended the less support it has causing the drill to wander a little.

The results is that I could not get a good tight piston fit all the way through the cylinder length, resulting in bad compression, and oil leaking, past the piston.

To remedy this< I do the following.

I set up my drill bit in the chuck, lock down my tailstock, and proceed to drill turning the tailstock handwheel, about 5 revolutions, that's roughly 5/16" depth of cut, then I back the handwheel out, and loosen the tailstock and pull the drill out of the bore, clean off the chips, and slide the tailstock back into the work, until the bit touches the inside of the drilled hole, and lock the tailstock and repeat the procedure, until the drill is all the way through.

Then I repeat the same procedure with the reamer, then as a test I stick the reamer back into the bore, without the drill chuck attracked, and turn the lathe on and check for any runout.

I did this using a reamer of 0.249" dia. to ream the cylinder bore, then doing the static test there was no visual runout, at the end of the reamer, then one final test, I took a 0.250" dia. reamer and tried to stick it in the bore, it would not even start to go in.

That one thousandth, of an inch larger would not go in, that tells me that the intermediate reaming procedure will keep a fairly true and straight bore as long as I take my time doing this procedure.

Then a dynamic test was done to check for piston fit.

I set the cylinder over the piston, and poured some 3in1 oil into the cylinder until the oil reached the top. Then I moved the cylinder up and down over the piston, and seen that the oil level remained steady all the time. As the cylinder was raised up and down the oil formed a column ontop of the piston, remaining at the same height, throughout.

Here is a video of this procedure, demonstrating the oil remains the same height even after movement of the cylinder over the piston.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMU8eM_vpjc[/ame]

So now I can move on to the rest of the build.

Thanks for watching.


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## T70MkIII (Sep 17, 2010)

Hobby, you do the most interesting projects! I am looking forward to watching this one grow.

Thanks for the drilling/reaming advice - another one of the many things in model engineering that make so much sense when someone points it out, but I doubt I would have thought of myself.


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## hobby (Sep 18, 2010)

Richard.
Thankyou for the nice compliment.


This model will need at least 12 universal joints, I can go with swivel hinged joints, or ball joints.

I'm going to try with ball joints first, by making one prototype cylinder with it, and see how it works out.

To do this I decided on making a quick dedicated 1/8" radius (1/4" dia.(ball cutter)), to see how it would work, in making a ball at the end of a workpiece.

I took a piece of 3/8" steel, around 3.5" long and ran a 1/8" deep flat across it with a 1/4" endmill.
Then I lined it up on center and drilled and reamed a 1/4" hole.











flipped it 180 deg. and milled a second flat to leave around an 1/8" thick tab at the end of the workpiece with a 1/4" hole.

Then elevated it to around 60* to mill a relief cut across the cutter portion.











Then tried it on a piece of 3/8" alum. rod.











I will try some more with this, and see how easily it will work, then make a prototype cylinder endcap incorporating a ball at the end.

If this works out then for the rest of the ball joint I have 3 options to choose from.

1. make the traditional round divet using a ball endmill on 2 pieces and sandwich the ball section in between.

2. make to 'V' grooves sections and sandwich the ball section between them.

3. bore a hole in a block, then mill out the top section, with a slot almost to the center height of the bore so the ball can fit inside with the stem section protruding through the slot.

Thats all for now.
Thanks.


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## kustomkb (Sep 18, 2010)

Cool project Hobby, nice job on the form tool, I'll remember that one.

I was lucky enough to fly that simulator a couple of times, no aerobatics and I think I spent more time watching the gauges than looking out the window. I wish I could go back and try it again.


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## kcmillin (Sep 18, 2010)

Great Project Hobs!

Thanks for the tips on the radius cutter.

I cant wait to see how your ball joints workout.

Kel


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## hobby (Sep 19, 2010)

KustomKB  said:
			
		

> Cool project Hobby, nice job on the form tool, I'll remember that one.
> 
> I was lucky enough to fly that simulator a couple of times, no aerobatics and I think I spent more time watching the gauges than looking out the window. I wish I could go back and try it again.



Thanks Kevin.

That sounds pretty interesting, I bet you did real well, just one word of caution, I hope you didn't fly it as fast as you work in your shop. (around the earth in a few seconds)... ;D


Kel, 
thanks for stopping by, and the nice compliment..

Here is an update of todays shop time.

Todays work was mainly modifying the radius cutter, for best performance, then working on a step by step procedure for making a ball joint.

So far I think I have the ball section, down to a procedure, to make them in a production mode. (I need at least 12 made)

Here is the cutter modified, I made the outsides much thinner, so it cuts into the work better.






To make the ball section of the universal joint.

I cut a piece of 3/8" dia. alu. rod, and finished the length to 0.875".
Then I put it in my lathe and machined a 3/8" long shaft down to 0.25".
This is what the ball section will be formed on.






And now the ball cutter is introduced and the cutting comences. Until a 1/4" dia. is met.











Afterward I switch cutters and machine the shaft to a dia. of 0.100" for a length of 0.250"






Now I turn it end for end and machine a threading nub, 0.100" dia. for 0.150" length.
and then it is treaded with a 4-40 die. cutter.











Now at this step I may make a threaded collet to hold the workpiece for machining the flange.
Right now I just pulled it out of the chuck further and machined half of the flange, to a dia. of 0.200".






Then turned it end for end and machined the rest of the flange.











Now the finished ball pin piece,.

















Now that most of the kinks are worked out with this part, I can start working on the rest of the ball joint, such as the base and cap to hold the ball pin.


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## hobby (Sep 19, 2010)

This is a first trial run at building the rest of the ball joint.

A little background on the design.

First a base needs to be made to contain the ball, at a depth almost to the center of it's diameter.
Then once the ball section is placed in it, then a top cap to retain the ball needs to be made.
This top cap will screw down over the base and have a small clearance with the top of the ball section, while at the same time have enough clearance with the ball shaft to allow the ball shaft to swivel properly.

This top cap will need to be made in 2 pieces, due to not having a bottoming tap, (which probably still would not be feasible, for the distance this needs to be internally threaded), these 2 pieces will be a internal threaded ring, and a external threaded flange with a specific hole thru, to contain the ball section.

By doing it with 2 pieces ensures that the internal thread of the ring is all the way thru, to allow a close fit to the ball.
The threaded flange will be glued and screwed together with the ring, forming a cap with internal threads all the way to where the flange internal bore meets the ball, with proper cleareanc being achieved by lossening the entire 2 pc. cap system on the base threads.

Here is the procedure thus far to make this assembly.

The base is cut and finished to length, Then a thru hole is drilled and tapped, 6-32, for the mounting studs in the project build.






Now keeping the tap in this piece, I loosen the chuck and slide out the workpiece required distance for next machining of the thread nub. This helps keep everything square in the chuck when I retighten it.






Now a nub is machined and threaded for 3/8-24.











Now an endmill is used to make a recess to contain the ball to close to half dia. depth.






Now it's time to make the containing ring. It is cut to length drilled and tapped for a 3/8-24.






Now for the containing ring top flange.

A nub is machined and threaded for 3/8-24.











Then a measurement is made on the ball where it sticks out of the base and a drill is chosen at a smaller dia, to drill a thru hole through this flange, this will contain the top of the ball section.






Then this flange is rough cut off of the parent stock.






The ring and flange before and aqfter assembly, being prepared for final finishing of this entire top cap unit.











The machining of the unit. and the almost finished part.











The 4 parts making up the entire assembly.






And the assembled unit.






Whoops.... something wrong with this entire assembly, the ball shaft does not have much freedom of movement, it bangs up against the flange side, restricting it.

To remedy that I put the top cap assembly back into the lathe and using a centerdrill, I chamfered the top cap top portion.











Now the dry assembly of the entire unit. Later thread locker will be used to permanently keep everything together with the needed clearances for proper operation.












Looks like the top tapering did the trick.






ball section seen from the top enclosed with the cap.






These are the 2 units (prototype builds, for testing concepts), so far before building the actual project.






Next I will need to make another lathe cutter formtool, to form the hose connectors, for the endcaps on the cylinders. I decided to make these from seperate pieces so as to use less material, the reason I made this choice is because I experienced real good results with
threadlocker loctite glue, to seal any areas in the threads that could allow leaks, from leaking.

Then I need to fab out the endcaps and a flange to bolt the ball joint assembly to, then do a preliminary dryfit of the cylinder to the balljoint to the floor flange and see if any issues arise that would need any part changes.

Then from there I should have enough proof of concepts figured out to commit to machining in a assembly line all the parts that have past the preliminary tests.

That's all for now.

Have fun.


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## hobby (Sep 24, 2010)

Hi again guys,

Today I started some production work, on this project.

I figured while it is still fresh in my memory, to do the universal ball joints, assembly, since there is a few procedures that need to be followed in a specific order.

So the first order in machining is the complete ball pin part.

The 12 pieces are cut to rough length,






 then faced off to finished length of 0.875".






Now here is a procedure I am using for making multiple parts.

First I arbitrarily set my carriage stop close to where I want the workpiece to be located,
and lock the stop down.






Then I bring the carriage up to the stop, as the zero reference.






Now I set my dial indicator to zero, then I back the carriage away from the stop a determined amount, using the dial indicator as the readout.











Once that is done, I then put each workpiece in the chuck and slide it up to the tool, this automatically locates the workpiece






 and the distance the carriage is away from the stop sets the depth of cut on the workpiece.






Now all the pieces are machined to the same length of cut.






I repeat this process for every other machining operation on these multiple workpieces.
So all the pieces are identical.

This is the workpieces to where the one end is threaded for 4-40, and the other end is machined to a dia. of 1/4", ready for the ball forming tool next.






The ball is formed on ithem.






Now the shaft is machined above the ball.






And the final operation, the flange is machined down to it's proper diameter.






And the final part after all machining is done to it. 12 pieces.






Next is to put into production the base and top sleeve and cap for this assembly.

Thanks for looking in..


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## hobby (Sep 26, 2010)

Hey everyone,

Here is a nice organinzing tip, when you have multiple pieces of various parts to machine, I put them in a divider box, in the picture below, the front bins are the prototype parts as visual reference to get measurements off of as well as totest newly made parts with, the second row of bins from the front are the completed pieces, while the back row of bins are the pieces that still need some kind of machining done on them.






Any way the production has gone into full swing, starting this weekend, 
here are the parts after coming right out of the bandsaw station.






And here are the parts seperated in there respective order, after a days work with all the machinery up on line.

The start of this production is with the universal 12 universal joints.






The 2 skids at the back are ready for the paint booth, while the one to the most right, still needs to go back on the floor for one more machining operation, that is for a larger thru bore, and a chamfer at the top. The finished proto, is leaning up against it, as a reference, that will stay with this bundle until the final machining is accomplished.

The one in front, are the billets ready to go into the lathe area, to be machined as the base units for the universal joint assembly. Again you can see the finished proto, leaning against it in front.

Well that's all for now...

Have fun...


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## kcmillin (Sep 26, 2010)

Lookin Good Hobs!

I love the little pallets your parts are sitting on. Now you need an equally small forklift to move them to the production floor :big:

Great idea with the dividers, and Ice cube trays. 

Kel


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## zeeprogrammer (Sep 26, 2010)

Very interesting project Hobby.
And, I'm learning a lot.
Thanks for the tips on drilling and reaming...that'll be a big help for me.


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## rcfreak177 (Sep 26, 2010)

G'day, 
    I second that on the little pallets Rof} It is great to see a build with a difference,
    Just wondering if you have considered a small cross section O ring on the hydraulic
    Cylinder Piston?

    The technique you used to make the ball joints was excellent, May come in handy 
    for me in the future. Please keep us posted.

    Cheers Barry.


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## hobby (Oct 2, 2010)

Thanks

Kel, Carl, Barry,

Barry, I am not using any O Rings, on the pistons yet, but if I have any compression issues, then O rings will be on the grocery list, I'm hoping to get a good enough seal with just the piston, to cylinder alone.

This weekend, I needed to build a quick corner unit to set behind my lathe, to put all my most used tools (for the lathe), on, so I don't have to keep going under the cabinet to pull out tools I need for a specific job.






Now with the project, I began assembling the top ball retainer, to it's outer ring, and then machine the unit to a final form, when I noticed that the retainers were just to big, and kept the whole unit from assembling properly with the base piece that houses the ball, So I got rid of the retainers, becuase the dia. I used wouldn't allow me to machine it properly, for the best fit.

I made new retainers, these retainers are made from 1/2" dia. round aluminum bar, instead of the original 3/8", and the machining procedures that follow allow me to make it properly fit tight to the outer ring, and still have a minimum amount sticking through the ring which gives more clearance for the ball, so the whole retainer/ring unit can be screwed down further on the base piece ensuring a better tight fitting assembly.

However this takes considerable time, for the machining that needse to be done on each piece, needs about 3 operations, before it can be taken out of the chuck, so in essence each retaining/ring unit is made seperately, before moving on to the next one, you will see what I mean with the photos to follow.

First I keep the whole parent stock intact to get best gripping in the chuck, then machine each piece from it.

Here I need to drill a 1/8" pilot hole as deep as possible to give me about 4 retainers at a time.
This hole is used only as a means to line up the workpiece back into the chuck for the final machining on it.






Now a treading nub is machined, it is made to a length of 1/8", which is too large for the application it will be used in, however I need it this large of length so as to get a proper fit for the 3/8-24 die that will be used on it. Later one thread will be eliminated from it so as to shorten it to proper length.

Using my DIRO (Dial Indicator Read Out). To establish tool bit location. Length of cut.






Now the thread nub is machined.






And threaded to 3/8-24.






Now that it has enough thread to the shoulder, I can shorten it by one thread length.






I could use a cut off tool bit, however this little benchtop bandsaw, is more quicker, and very precise, for cutting a small workpiece. I like this saw a lot.






Here is the part after parting it from the parent stock.






Now I thread lock glue it to a outer ring, so the whole unit can be machined together in the lathe.






Now this unit is placed back into the lathe, using the 1/8" drill bit in the tailstock and sticking it through the pilot hole previously drilled in the beginning steps to line it up back into the chuck.
Need to make sure the chuck grips only the outer ring and NOT the retainer otherwise the unit could dissamble from the back side if the retainer has more grip on it then the ring, but by gripping only the ring, then the retainer automatically is tightened up by the force of the tool bit against it as it is rotating.






And now the ball shank clearance hole is first drilled through the unit. Using a #1 drill.






Now I can face off to length the thickness of the retainer, down to around 50 thou..






Finally the chamfering of the top of the retainer so as to give the shank clearance to move side to side.






A little touchup with the file to round over the sharp edge, in front.






And the finished ring/retainer unit.






This shows the bottom side, the amount of clearance the retainer gives, as more threads are shown inside the ring. This then means the ring can thread down farther on the ball base piece, without cinching the ball too tightly.






I need to work on the base units by making the counter bore that holds the ball a little deeper so the entire ball is submerged in it, this gives proper clearance all round for the ball to move it's entire revolution, without any binding.

That's all for now, this weekend has been more of a trouble shooting course in this ball joint design.

Thanks for watching...

Have fun...


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## hobby (Oct 5, 2010)

Ok some more production happened within the last couple days,

The base housings were sent back to the lathe area because of the change workorder, due to the redesigning of the top retainers, see last posts, these base units more or less were just CB. deeper so as to retain the entire ball inside.

Here I'm using the pretapped hole with a tap in the tailstock chuck, so as to ensure a perfect as possible alignment of the workpiece back into the chuck.

I found that a tapped hole in a workpiece that will have a thru hole through it anyhow,, is the best kind of alignment hole so as to put a part back into the lathe, for remachining.






Now a ball endmill is reintroduced into the CB. to make it deeper.






Now the assembly of each unit can begin.






Now all is needed is for pachaging, and these will be ready to be sent out to the job site.






Meanwhile production on the endcaps for the cylinders has also been under way.

First a hole is drilled and tapped to receive the ball joint assy.






Test fit.






All six done with step one.
Next the pieces will be drilled and reamed for the cylinder to screw onto.











Test fits.
















Now time to set up for drilling and tapping for a hose bib to later be installed.

Lining up the center of the workpiece with the spindle. Spin jig in the back of the vice on the table in the pic.






Referencing the edge, and then using a DIRO, to set the amount of "X" table travel.











Drill and tap for proper threading.






Now machine a flat in same location, for the hose bib to set on.

First I need to locate the top of the workpiece, this is done by locking the drill quill, so now all "Z" travel is done with the headstock moving on the column, this ensures the most acurate depth controle, becauise now I can use the DIRO on the "Z" axis to watch the depth of cut.
Which is 20 thou. of depth.
















The reason for using the spin jig, is these will be reinstalled, in it, and then flats will be machined to form a nut in the area of the bib hole around the endcap diameter.

That's all for now,
See ya later..


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## kcmillin (Oct 5, 2010)

Wow Hob's, you sure know how to play. I like your style, the mini production floor is great.

Keep up the good work.

Kel


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## hobby (Oct 6, 2010)

Hi Kel, 

Thanks for the compliments,
 yeh, it was fun making those miniature props, it breaks up any potential dulldrum in my build threads, to give a little entertainment to it.


Now it's time to finish the machining on the bottom endcaps for the cylinders.
I need to put the workpieces back into the index jig, so by using the pretapped hose bib hole, I was able to bolt on a piece of scrap stock to use as a depth stop as well as a vertical line up jig






.I turned the spin jig to 90* mark, then inserted the workpiece using a square to line it up vertical.






Here it is sitting back at 0* to check the vertical of the square blade.






Remove the scrap piece and begin machining the 6 (hexagon) flats, turning the index jig, every 
60* .











Now all the pieces are machined with the hex form on them, it was time to reinsert them into the lathe, I mentioned this before but this is worth mentioning again, when it comes to remounting a small workpiece back into the lathe chuck, with very little grpping of the jaws, it could be very hard to get the piece to stay concentric.

BUT, if a hole needs to be drilled in the workpiece (especially a thru hole, then I may start using this method I again happened to stumbled upon.

 Drill a hole with a tap drill size, smaller than the finished hole would be, and tap the hole, this becomes a very good line up procedure to get the part back into the chuck concentric, by using the tap in the tailstock the workpiece can be slid into the chuck and then by turning it on the tap more or less is like dialing it to the exact area for gripping, and the jaws can grip small amouint yet because the tap keeps everything in line, the workpiece will stay rather concentric throughout the tightening of the chick. 

Once the work is tight in the chuck, then either remove the tap from the tailstock drill chuck, or manually spin the chuck backwards to back out the tap.

Here it is being done.






Here is the small area being gripped by the chuck jaws.






And the concentricity when it is spiinning.






Now some tapering at the back of this endcap, so as to make it blend in to the small shaft dia. of the ball joint unit.
















That's all for now.

Have fun...


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## jolijar (Oct 7, 2010)

you need one of these for your warehouse.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHA25&P=7
 ;D


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## Diy89 (Oct 7, 2010)

Great work! Would you tell us more about your bench band saw, please?


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## hobby (Oct 7, 2010)

jolijar  said:
			
		

> you need one of these for your warehouse.
> http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXHA25&P=7
> ;D



Yeh, I think I will need one of those to haul all these skids of parts. ;D

We never had toys like that when we were groing up, my tonkas were all manual driven.
Those were mostly steel constructed, built to last.





			
				Diy89  said:
			
		

> Great work! Would you tell us more about your bench band saw, please?



Hi,
I got this bansaw a couple Christmas's ago, I was able to get it on sale at the time from Micromark, 

However just now, to my surprise when I did a search for it in there website, I found that they discontinued it. That is a nice little item to have on the workbench.

They take the same size blades as the handheld portable bandsaws, they did not discontinue the blades just the saw itself.

Here is a link to there website showing it as a discontinued item.

http://www.micromark.com/PORTABLE-BANDSAW-OUTFIT,8099.html

A google search should bring up this kind of bandsaw outfit, from other places, I know that 'lathemaster' sells a outfit like this but for a pretty substantial price, maybe a better design.

here is a very good one from lathemaster.
http://www.lathemaster.com/Benchtop Bandsaw.htm

But it is a very nice saw for the bench, it is a portable bandsaw hooked up spring loaded to a base with a built in vise, the saw I have from micromark, is in my opinioin, the base seems to be an afterthought, that was not well thought out.

Here is why the blade is very far away from the vise which limits small work from being held.
To remedy that I put a small drill vise on a 2X4 and clamp that in the main vise, that puts the blade around 1/4" away from the drill vise jaws, so as to hold very small workpieces.

Also the rotation of the blade with respect to the vise in my opinion is backwards, the blade is rotating towards the operator, and the moveable jaw is towards the operator, so the force of the saw teeth are pulling the workpiece against this moveable jaw, less rigid then if the saw blade would rotate against the fixed fence.

The reason for this setup, is because the saw was sold mainly as a portable handheld unit, in that case the blade rotating against it's own fence attached to the saw worked.

Hope this helps...


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## coopertje (Oct 7, 2010)

Hi Hobby,

Interesting project! I am curious to see if the cylinders without o-rings will work. I have some plans already for years for making a small press-brake machine (not for use, just to put somewhere). Do you have an idea already for the hydraulic pump unit and the kind of pressures you need to move the cylinders?

Keep on the good work!

Have fun, Jeroen


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## hobby (Oct 7, 2010)

Hi Jeroen,


Here is a example build I did a few months back with a hydraulic cylinder build, I did not use any o-rings, I was able to get good compression, but for this application it worked fine with no o-rings.

I used 3 in 1 oil, for the hydraulic fluid.

The last part of the video, I'm lifting a set of 1-2-3 blocks

http://www.youtube.com/v/jd7xknZruyE&hl=en&fs=1

For your application, you may need o-rings if your building a bigger cylinder and need more pressure, my builds are very small cylinder bores, and this simulator project is going to be a very light load, mostly the simulator unit itself will be made out of balsa wood or something very light, so the pistons won't need much pressure to work.

The pump unit will be, probably like in the video, a manual piston cylinder unit.


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## coopertje (Oct 8, 2010)

Hi Hobby,

Cool! There are so many nice things to build, wish a day had 48 hours! I can easily write 3 A4 papers with projects I want to do.....

Maybe you find this site interesting, its in Dutch but the pictures explain enough. 

http://members.home.nl/chof/Modelhydrauliek.htm
http://members.home.nl/chof/Cilinders.htm

This guy made a real working hydraulic digging machine. I am eager to start to do something with hydraulics, but I think it will be at least a year from now. I first want to finish the Stuart lathe and my Stanley car. But I will follow your progress closely


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## Diy89 (Oct 8, 2010)

Thanks for the saw info. I like the lathemaster version, but i am still undecided as to what to buy. Each time i have to hacksaw thru some stock i think i need one! ;D


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## hobby (Oct 8, 2010)

coopertje  said:
			
		

> Hi Hobby,
> 
> Cool! There are so many nice things to build, wish a day had 48 hours! I can easily write 3 A4 papers with projects I want to do.....
> 
> ...



Thankyou for the links.
By the way, your doing a realy nice job on your stuart lathe and stanley steamer.
Keep up the great work..


Diy89, 

Your welcome, 
I find for small hobby work those benchtop models are real handy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello everyone, 

I had a whole nice write up with about 10 pics. discussing my progress in this today, but accidentally deleted the pics from the camera, before they were transfered to my folder.

So in short
 I want to put a decorative design on the cylinders, so I made a form tool and tested it out on a scrap part here it is after machining.







I will work on this to make it better and maybe use it on the cylinders.


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## hobby (Oct 9, 2010)

That first form tool was made quickly as a proof of concept, now that I see it will work, I made a new one, and took my time to make it right, I started out with a 1/4" X 1" wide steel bar. the kind you get (from lowes hardware store)






Then I machined the thickness to around 1/16" for the blade of the form tool.











Because I need 40 thousandths, depth of cut, it would be hard to draw this freehand, so I used my cad to print out a shape that can be used as a template to paste onto the formtool blank...






Using a dremel to shape out the formtool blank.






Then some relief sanding on the bottom side to give it a sharp edge, these form tools are more or less scrapers to scrape a form into the soft material (aluminum). So no need for hardening them.






A trial on a scrap piece.





IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0603/ddkiz/model%20flight%20simulator/139.jpg[/IMG]





Now one more trial run, this time on the prototype cylinder, to make sure it does not break through the internal bore.

Make 2 arbors to screw onto both ends, one for the chuck and the other has a taper hole on the other end, to fit into a live center.










Using a magic marker to allow me to know when the form tool has full contact with the workpiece, when finished.














Ok it works good on the prototype.






with the other protoype parts dry fitted for clarity of parts placement.






Ok time to do the real cylinders, for the project build.


















All the parts made to date.






Have a great day...


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## cfellows (Oct 9, 2010)

This is a real education you're giving us, Hobby. Thanks for documenting this so well.

Chuck


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## hobby (Oct 16, 2010)

Chuck, 

your welcome,
and Thankyou for the complement.
-------------------------------------------


I got all the pistons and shafts machined and assembled, then I started working on the top endcaps for the cylinders.

Since no hoses will go at the top, there is nbo need for any gaskets to go at the top, so I made the top endcaps out of 2 pieces, one is a internal threaded ring, the other is an external threaded retainer, assembled together, to form one unit.

The outer ring was given some fancy triangular shape, using my indexing jig, on the mill.






then cut to rough length on the portable band saw.






drilled and tapped to fit the cylinder thread.











And then the top retainers roughed out






fitted to rings, and machined to length, then roundover profiled.





















Here I'm trying out my new toy,(tool), microflow coolant system.
works nice.






here it is as a kit, put together, ready for use.






Now the endcap units are screwed onto there cylinders, then the cylinders are gripped in the lathe, so if the endcaps are crooked, the hole through the top will still be concentric with the cylinder bore. That's whats important, the endcap can be off a little, but the thru hole must be in line with the cylinder bore.











The assemblies to date.






I picked up some enamel paint from the crafts store yesterday, and tried it on a scrap of aluminum, to see if it will stay on, and it stays on real good, hard to rub it off, this paint is good for metal, as well as ceramics and stuff..






So I will try to paint these pieces, to give it more of a model look, just to make it more creative,
after all I'm not trying to make an exact copy of the flight simulator, but making a creative model of the concept of the flight simulator picture.

Thanks for looking in...
see ya later...


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## kcmillin (Oct 16, 2010)

You seem to have mastered the form tooling Hobs. Great work, there is plenty of inspiration in your thread.

Kel


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## shred (Oct 16, 2010)

I recognize that coolant tank   Great use for it!


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## hobby (Oct 23, 2010)

Hi Kel,
Thanks for the encouraging words.

Hi Shred,
 The microflow system seems to work pretty nice, I'll use it mostly for extensive cutting on the mill and lathe.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are the parts to date, with some paint slapped on them.











Now some calculations, to figure out the height of my driving cylinder needs to be with a 7/8" inner bore dia.






5/8" overall height should work for this.






I drill with a 1/2" bit for a 1/2" depth to get started on the inner bore, for the cylinder.
then I use a 1/2" endmill, to cut a flat bottom in the cylinder at this stage, of boring.











Then move to a boring bar to finish the bore dia. to around 0.86" - 0.87".











Time to go get something to eat, machining makes me so hungry all the time.

Well after watching a little DIY on television, while eating, I come back to see this mess, in my shop, while I was in here working I never noticed how messy and crouded it was getting with all the tools I kept bringing out.

BUT walk away and come back fresh and I see the difference now. I have a small shop area, in the basement.






Now this is better, I can now move onto the next part of my machining session.






Since I need to make 6 of these units, I better write down the procedures.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is a good tip for beginners.

If you need to drill a rough depth, without using a dial indicator, then test how far your drill chuck travels in the tailstock for one revolution of the handwheel. Mine is around a 1/16", roughly.

Then put the drill (center, jobber, reamer, endmill), in the chuck and crank the handwheel all the way in,






 then make one turn of the handwheel out to advance the drill bit,






 from there slide the tool bit up tight against the workpiece, and lock down the tailstock.






Then crank the handwheel back in till it stops, and start up the lathe 
and then when you crank the handwheel back out to advance the drill bit, it will again touch the workpiece and that is now your reference of where to start your depth of cut, from there you turn the handwheel as many turns required to get to the depth you desire.






-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok that above procedure was done to drill a shallow depth of 3/16" using a drill for a 3/8-24 tap.
Into the piston head, so a piston rod can screw into it.






Now after tapping the blank, I cut it off at a 5/16" length using the benchtop bandsaw. (very quick way to cut a workpiece)






Nice accurate clean cut using this saw.






Now I cut a piece of 3/8" dia. stock to a little over 1", to become the piston rod.






After facing it to proper length then a hole is drilled and tapped to 6-32, at one end.
By drilling and tapping this hole allows me to use it in lining up the workpiece in the chuck jaws when a small grip is needed.






Now the rod is machined to a 1/4" dia. leaving 3/16" left at the originaql 3/8" dia., which is gripped in the chuck jaws.











Now the rod is turned end for end, and the last bit is machined to around 0.360" dia. so a 3/8-24 die can be used on it for threading.
















Now the roughed out piston head blank is screwed on tightly, to see how much thread is revealing. The reason for the thread on the rod revelaing is because I don't have a bottoming tap for tapping the piston head, so about 2 1/2 threads are really engaging.






But this is a blessing in disguise, because now I need to machine a taper at the bottom of the rod, taking off enough threads to leave about 2-3 threads left, by doing this it gives the piston head a really tight snug fit, with a pair of channel locks to make it tight without needing to use any loctite glue.











Now with everything tight and secured, I can machine the piston head to the proper length and dia. to fit the cylinder bore, it's being made for.






Cylinder fitted over the piston, and the chuck spinning to see how concentric and properly fitted the piston is inside the cylinder.






The piston and cylinder to this point.










Now a hole is drilled and tapped 1/8" up from the bottom of the cylinder to a thread of 6-32.
To mount a hose connector too.






The endcaps and both hose connectors are dry fitted onto there cylinders, so some oil leakage will occure, but this is a test run to see if the calculated value of a piston movement of around 0.170" with the master cylinder will cause the piston in the driven cylinder to travel around 1-3/4".

Here it is being tested, the small driving cylinder moves it's piston less than 1/4", while the driven piston moves over 1-1/2".

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L-PxhT-05IM?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0

Have fun in the shop...


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## kustomkb (Oct 23, 2010)

Well done Hobby! That's pretty cool. Thanks for all the explanations.


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## kcmillin (Oct 23, 2010)

Nicely Done Hobs. I like your method of tapering the end of the piston rod to get a good tight fit. Everything is looking awesome. 

Kel

P.S.Your "Mess" in the shop, is what mine looks like after a serious cleaning ;D


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## hobby (Oct 30, 2010)

Thanks 

KustomKB and KEL,
I appreciate the complements.

--------------------------------------------

In the last post I ended with showing the building a prototype of the actuator cylinder.

Afterward I began building all six actuator cylinders, with endcaps, and pistons to fit.
I'm still in the process of fitting each piston, I have only 2 done so far.

Here is a brief showing of the endcaps being fitted and machined to there cylinders.

First I located the holes that will be drilled and tapped into the cylinder rims, and the clearance holes through the endcap.











Then I machined the inner bore in the cylinder first.






Then I screwed on its endcap securely, in preparation for the hole to be drilled and reamed, through it.





















Then I machined a neck into the endcap, by machining the material around it down to the top of the screw heads.











now all the cylinders, endcaps and the piston rods as well as the pistons were machined and assembled.











Now I am in the process of machining each piston to final diameter for there respective cylinders.
For a proper fit.
So far I have 2 completed at this stage, I don't want to rush this and make mistakes at this point, so I'll wait until another day to finish the rest of the pistons,

These cylinder assemblies as shown above, are the actuators, that will drive the pistons that will run the load. (in this case the simulator cabin).

These actuators, will be assembled into an arangement, to be used as a joystick input device.

Here I have begun to draw out a diagram for this joystick assembly.






Here are the actuator cylinders set on the diagram to give clarification of this arrangement. (to test how it will all fit together).






As I was playing around with the actuator piston and a model cylinder, I used a 3 ft, long tubing to see if the actuator worked as well as it did with a piece of 3 in. length.

The actuator and model piston, worked perfectly, just as if it were a short tubing, so that made me begin to think, that to get flexibility between the joystick and the model cylinders, the tubing needs to be kind of long in length, BUT that would mean a lot of hydraulic fluids, to fill the lines, so this model may be changed over to a full pneumatic system, if it can carry the load properly, OR a full hydraulic system, OR a semi hydraulic system, where I use just enough fluid to fill the model cylinders, and use the air pressure of the actuators to push this oil back and forth in and out of these model cylinders.

So these three options are left open to me at this time, once I get the joystick system done, then I'll be able to experiment to see which system would work best under this kind of load.

Well that's all for now.

Have fun in the shop...


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## hobby (Nov 6, 2010)

This weekend was more or less designing and fabricating a 'pneumatic / hydraulic', joystick module.

Here is a template drawn out on my cad program, that I will use to fabricate the base of the joystick, the actuator cylinders can be seen at the top, these are spring loaded with spring retaining buttons screwed on top the piston shaft.






Then today I started working on a 'air / fluid' distributing manifold, that will be situated at the front of the joystick, where the actuator cylinders will tie into, then from the manifold, each tubing will tie into the model cylinders, the manifold will be comprised of a oil filling reservoir, should I need to resort to making this work by hydraulic pressure.

I started with a piece of 1" dia. alu. round bar. 
tramed it in on the dividing head, and began to machine flats on 3 sides.
First the top side with a 1/2" endmill so as to make an area for the oil reservoirs, holes to be drilled and tapped.
Then on the 2 adjacent sides with a 1/4" endmill to make a flat for drilling thru holes that will later be the tubing connectors.
















Now the tubing connector thru holes are drilled.






And the oil reservoir holes are drilled half way through to meet the adjacent holes, and are tapped to recieve the threaded fixture, be it a cap alone, or a cup and cap, haven't decided yet.






And finally the bottom is machined flat.






Now to form the tubing connectors onto this I need to rough out the material around the thru holes making 1/4" squares, so the form tool can form the spigots.





















Now the form tool is put to use, to form the spigots for the tubing connectors.
















Now some clean up with a large endmill to make things look more tidy.











Next I need to do a little more profile work on it, then make the capping fixtures for the oil reservoirs, then from there I will be ready to start the joystick base and assemble the unit together, then give it a test run with the model cylinders, as a proof of concept.

If it works properly, then I'll be ready to continue work with the rest of the model, starting making the base for the model cylinders to attach too.

That's all for now, 

Have fun in the shop..


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## sportandmiah (Nov 6, 2010)

Fascinating project! Can we see a better pic of the form tool in the last series of pics?


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## hobby (Nov 6, 2010)

Hi sportandmiah,

Please see this link, theres a few detail pictures of how it was made, and a video of me testing it out. In the video I had to run it fast, because I only had 30 sec. on my camera, but when I do use this tool, I run it at a moderate speed, and the feed rate is much more slower.

Post #14

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=10180.msg113728#msg113728


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## Tin Falcon (Nov 7, 2010)

has been a while since I looked in on this thread. wow lots of progress fantastic documentation ,step by step and way over the top scale assembly benches and pallets. Keep it up man.
Tin


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## hobby (Nov 20, 2010)

Tin Falcon

Thanks for looking in, and the uplifting complement..
-------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

This is the possible layout for the joystick module, maybe...





This is the fluid input manifold, that will couple the joystick actuators, to each model hydraulic cylinder.











Now with all that machined, it's time to turn my attention, back to the model cylinders, what I have done is drawn up the foundation layout, where each cylinder should be located at, then took some measurements, to figure out the compound angle needed to make the base units to connect the cylinders to.

Then I made a quick plywood jig, to hold the base unit workpieces, in position, for machining, in the angle tilting vise, on the mill. This will be several machining operations.











First operation completed, the base units are machined to compound angle.






Now I want to drill and tap for the anchor screws, which will attach the cylinders to it.

First the jig is reused but this time double stick tape is used to secure it to the vise, for locating each workpiece.
















And now the machine work.





















The anchor screws are made by cutting the heads off of a 6-32 screw.











And now the cylinders are dryfitted to check for fit.






Now, instead of the model cylinders having there hydraulic tubings connected directly from the joystick module, I decided on making an intermediate connection, where the model cylinders are directly connected to a hose coupling fitting attached to the base, with enough slack to allow movement of the cylinder through it's ball joint connector.

Then the main hydraulic line, connect to the other end of this hose coupling fitting, and then the hose coupling fitting will attach to the base unit, probably right here.






That way there the main line can be securely attached to a stable base so not exposed to constant movement, from the model cylinder, also removing the joystick module will be much easier, because it will not interfere with pulling hoses off of the model cylinders, but rather the base units.

So here is the starting of building these hose coupling fittings.
Pencil drawing on the board maybe a little hard to see, but here is a description, of how it is being made, to date.






The fitting is hard to see in the drawing, but it is going to be made as one piece, the two input tube connectors, (that will attach to tubing from the joystick), will go on one side of this, while 90* from each side of these will be machined another tube connector, which will connect to the model cylinders themselves.
And this whole unit will attach to the base unit for each set of model cylinders.

The dimensions of the workpiece needed for this will have to come from a round stock 1.250" dia. aluminum. The finish length after first lathe machining, will be around 1.500"
A 3/8" dia. spigot will be turned down on this for a rough length of 1/2", and drilled and tapped for a 6-32 thread. This spigot will serve as a standoff above the base unit it will attach to, later 1/4" will be taken off the length of the standoff, befor final assembly.











Machined to fit inside a 3/8" 5C collet, for machining purposes on the mill.






drilled and tapped 6-32 thread for attachment to its base unit.






Now placed in spin jig, for the locating and drilling of the model cylinder hose coupling, holes which will be spaced 180* from eachother, these will be machined 90* from the side of the workpiece. (on the flat).






Now once this is drilled, and all milling around the hole is done to make a square stud, I'll then transfer the workpiece to my benchtop drill press to do the actual machining with the form tool on the piece, held in a vise, the reason for this is because my drillpress has a stronger motor than my micro mill drill machine, and this alleviates hard wear and tear off of my milling machine for this kind of machining.

Once the spigots are formed, then I will need to put the workpiece in my angle tilting vise, and tilt it to 60*, to match the angle of the base unit it attaches to, this is so the spigot will be horizontal when this coupling is attached to its base, if not then the spigot would be pointing down too far.
Again all machining to make a square stud will be done, on the mill and probably a jig will be made to hold the workpiece at the angle in a vise on the drillpress, for final spigot forming.

Well that's all for now, slow progress, at times but it's all in the fun of learning new techniques, and challenges of making precision parts.

Have fun in the shop....


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## ozzie46 (Nov 21, 2010)

Hobby, you do incredible work on what appears to be a 7x lathe and small mill.

  Keep up the good work. I don't always comment but I am faithfully following along.

 This is one of my must read threads.


  Ron


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## bearcar1 (Nov 21, 2010)

I am completely impressed with the techniques and setups you are using on this project, Hobby. I'd like to thank you for photographically documenting each step and methods used, along with a detail of how you arrived at the final solution to a problem. Pictures always help me understand what is going on and I must say this build has been a fun one to follow along with. Please continue to put your talents on display for all of us to view. I particularly find that it is a huge benefit by supplying 'how to' ideas for future project reference. :bow:

BC1
Jim


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## BlakeMcKee (Nov 21, 2010)

Very unique choice for a project, just goes to show anythings possible if you set your mind to it! Keep up the fine craftsmanship!


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## hobby (Nov 21, 2010)

Ron, Jim, and Blake

Thankyou guys, for the Very nice complements, and the very encouraging replies.

Have a great week.


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## Groomengineering (Nov 22, 2010)

Amazing work hobby! If I was half as organised as you..... :

Cheers

Jeff


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## hobby (Nov 25, 2010)

Hi Jeff,

I have a small shop area, and that really taught me how to be more arganized. 

Thanks for stopping by and the nice complement.

Have a great day...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello,

The last post left off with the, beginnings of the oil hydron, that will couple the main line to each model cylinder, as one unt.

First the drilling of the two side spigot holes, these will later be cross drilled from the front of the workpiece to form the complete plumbing rout for each model cylinder.







After the drilling on both sides of the workpiece, then the rough profiling out of the spigots are done, in preparation for the finish form tool to be used to form the spigot.






Here I'm using one of the drilled holes as a reference to locate back to center of spigot hole.






Now the rest of the roughing out of the spigot.






some corner rounding to make it easier for the tool to work.











Now my benchtop drillpress has a strong motor on it, so the bullwork will be done on this more now, and save wear and tear on my milling machine.

In order to line up the workpiece in the vice on my drillpress, I get to dust off my homemade x,y, table, and finally put it to good use, after 10 years of being stagnat in a drawer.
Now the form tool is used.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hrzofU96nQ[/ame]





















Now time to verify the angle of the base that this will connect to, and set the angle vise to 60*, for roughing out the front spigots.











Some locating and edge finding, to locate the center of the workpiece for reference.






But first before I tighten the vise, I need to align the workpiece so the 2 side spigots are parrallel to the table. What better way to do this then to use a guage on a surface plate, to check height of the two side holes center.











some measuring for calculating center, and the workpiece set on course, with edge finding.











Drill the next spigot holes one on each side of the front face.
















And again roughing out work.









































Now back on the drillpress, to form the spigots, to finish dia.






Locating centers of holes.






And the formed spigots done.











Thats as far as I want to go for now, this first piece is made to check angles and holes alignment as was drawn up to make sure no calculations were wrong.

I now need to make the other two, and get them both to this stage also, because all three will then be profile milled to bring the workpiece to a proper shape, so this can be done when all three are being worked on for consistancy.

Have fun in the shop...


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## kcmillin (Nov 25, 2010)

That is some amazing stuff Hobs. You have a great ability to see inside the bar of aluminum, and remove everything that is not the part. Great job. 

I like the bases for the cylinder's. There is a lot to think about with all those angles, and I like your solution.

Kel


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## hobby (Nov 26, 2010)

Hi Kel,

Thanks for the complement,

Those bases that the cylinders bolt to, was probably the most dificult part to figure out, with this whole project so far, I went through 6 pieces trying to figure the angles, as well as the orientation of the part.

I knew what I wanted in angles, but I just couldn't get the part oriented in the right direction, then once I did, then my angles were out of whack, finally after some trial and error, I got the compound angles exact.

The solution of using a wooden jig, I find that wooden jigs if made properly and sturdy, are easier and quicker to make, and much less material cost, then making them out of metal, when a wooden jig is feasable to use in particular aplications.

Thanks again for looking in,
Have a great day...


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## coopertje (Nov 27, 2010)

Hi Hobby,

Did you get your mill fixed again? I guess so because the pictures of progress are rolling in again. Very nice work! :bow:
Like the wooden jigs you made, simple cheap and they do what they need to do!

Have fun, regards Jeroen


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## hobby (Nov 27, 2010)

Hi Jeroen

Yeh, it needed another speed controler.
Thanks for the complement.
Nice thing about wooden jigs, there quicker and easier to make and once your done with them they can be discarded, easily.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Todays session was more about fixing mistakes.

I was making the roughed out spigots (square posts) too large, I made them 1/4" square to fit the larger formtool, for larger dia. tubing.

This project calls for smaller dia. tubing, so I was using the smaller formtool, on the mistakenly large square posts, and end up breaking the form tool, as well as messing up the workpiece.






So after some careful thinking, instead of making a new workpiece, I decided the best way to fix this would be to cut off both ruined square posts, and set it back up in the spin jig, drill for a plug, then remachine the plug to the proper square post size.

So first I turned the spin jig, to 90*, 






by doing this I can reinsert the workpiece on the vertical, and use a square to line it up square to the table surface.






from there, I proceeded to machine off the one bad stud, 






Then using a center finder I located the original drilled hole.

.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




And used a 5/16" drill to make a thru hole.






Then took a piece of 3/8" dia. dowle and machined it to the proper dia, to fit the drilled hole, leaving 1/4" in heigth left as a shoulder, to press fit into the workpiece.











While it was spinning in the lathe I took a file and set it on edge to make some ring grooves, that will be used for keying in for the loctite glue.






Pressed it in.











Then redrilled, and remachined to get the proper size square post.
















Ok now time to make a new formtool, however this time I'm making it more like a cutter/formtool,
by offsetting the endmill cut off center allows the endmill to cut a somewhat sharp edge on the tool.











After forming the spigots on both sides, I'm now ready to continue on where I left off before the tool broke and ruined this workpiece.
Now I can machine the front face 2 spigots.

The more machining I do on this piece, the more it smiles at me.











By making and fixing this mistake, has been again a Blessing in disguise, because I now see ways where I can use this method to make complicated parts where facets will be protruding and things, instead of machining it out of one solid piece, and making my little mill do alot of roughing bullwork,
I can dowle and glue pieces together that are close to finish size, then use my mill to machine to final profile dimensions, as if I were machining a casting, this way it would save a lot in material cost, plus I could use pieces of scrap to build up larger parts for final milling.

Another advantage would be, those difficult areas to machine could be almost eliminated, because I could machine certain areas before I fit and glue more pieces, in the area, I see great potential in using this method of building up pieces for a finished part, then machining to finish dimensions.




So anyway 2 of these parts finished one to go.






Have a great day...


----------



## hobby (Dec 1, 2010)

Last couple of evenings been working on the oil hydrons.

First using my benchtop bandsaw, a cut the tops of the workpieces, so as to machine the tops to finish dimensions.
















Then set it aqt a 30* angle to start profiling the front skirt.











Layout the back angle cut.






and setting a surface guage so as to lacate the next 2 workpieces at the same angle.






And machining the backside skirt.






and the 3 machined to that point.






Now some more profiling around the skirt to give it some 3D depth.
















And the part to date, still have the other 2 to do yet, then do some more profiling until it looks in perspective of the rest of the components it will be attached to.






Have fun in the shop....


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## kustomkb (Dec 2, 2010)

Nice looking piece Hobby.

 I would never have thought to use the surface gauge for locating like that. Good tip.


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## hobby (Dec 3, 2010)

Thanks KustomKB...

--------------------------------------------------

Using a 1/8" ball endmill, began milling a seperation between the spigots.
Followed by using a dremel chamfering bit, to profile the inside and ouitside edges, to take away some of the boxy look to the piece.































Then located and drilled and tapped a hole in the base to connect the hydrons to.






The new generation of vacuum cleaners.






Vacuum cleaner race.






Vacuum cleaner bumper cars.






Here are the base units connected to there model cylinders.
How about a game of 'simon says' (simon says , put your right foot out)






Or game of 'London bridges',,,






Here is a quick mockup of the orientation of the base cylinder units.





















Its starting to come up from the ground, next probably work on the couplings for the model cylinders, piston rods, which will connect eventually to the platform which is yet to be built.

Have fun shopping,,,(workshopping, that is)...


----------



## hobby (Dec 4, 2010)

Started to assemble the model, first I made a layout for the position of all the components, then temporarily taped it to a piece of plexiglass, so the pattern can be seen.

Then using double stick tape I began to apply tape to the components, and set them firmly on the plexiglass pattern.











Then began to hook up the tubings for the components as well











The tubing that needs to go to the model cylinders themselves connected from the base unit hydron, will need to be short, using the clear tubing is to stiff, and would cause kinks, so for the small tubings, I used wire insulation, stripped the wire from inside, and the insulation is nice and flexible, and works good for this application.
















And so it is at this point, where the model cylinders and actuators and all connections are made.
















Next will probably be work on the platform itself, that holds the cabin of this model.

Have a great day...


----------



## ttrikalin (Dec 4, 2010)

now it comes together... 
superb machining, and a very well thought out project. 
Bravo!

take care, 

tom in MA


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## kcmillin (Dec 4, 2010)

It is lookin' pretty awesome Hobs!!

Keep up the good work!

Kel


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## hobby (Dec 11, 2010)

Tom, Kel,

Thanks guys for the compliments.
Have a great day.

-------------------------------------

Hello everyone,

This weekends progress, has been to fabricate 6 couplings, too attach the model cylinders piston rods, to the balljoint unit, which later are attached by double stick tape to a clear plexi. platform.

The couplings being fabricated.































coupled to a ball joint unit.






and to the model cylinder piston rod.






Now time to make the platform to assemble to the model cylinders, bringing it all together, as a working model.

Print out a template to glue to the paper coating on a piece of plexi.
Then cut it out on my bandsaw, then cut out the paper drawings of where each balljoint base unit goes, then double stick tape the base units to the plexi.


























The assembled unit, being readied for a test run.











Now a video of the first test run, to see if everything will work in proper order.
The whole system has small air leaks, due to not making any seals for the actuators,
I have not perfected the method of hydraulics assembly, so there is going to be plenty of errors in the final working of this design, however it is succesful enough to be a proof of concept model.

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/md4ugolY9CI?fs=1&amp;hl=en_USThe next part of this project, will be to make a joystick of somesort, to work the actuators, then mostly all the machining will be done, and then some modelbuilding of a cabin to sit on the platform, and possibly, some electronics for sight and soud effects, and the project should then be a complete model.

Have fun in the shop...


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## kcmillin (Dec 11, 2010)

Thats Way to Cool Hobs!

Congratulations on getting the model working!

Are you using any fluid in the lines? Or are you running it with air?

Kel


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## zeeprogrammer (Dec 11, 2010)

That is really really cool.
Amazing.


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## ozzie46 (Dec 11, 2010)

Absolutely amazing Hobbs That is just to neat for words. Well done. :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

  Ron


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## kustomkb (Dec 15, 2010)

Such a great idea and beautiful execution. Great work Hobby!

Can't wait to see it all packaged up.


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## cl350rr (Dec 15, 2010)

A truly amazing model and really interesting watching it develope.

Randy


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## ttrikalin (Dec 15, 2010)

Get out of here! this is the coolest thing I've seen!
do they have a project of the year award? 

 th_confused0052

take care, 

tom in MA


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## ChooChooMike (Dec 15, 2010)

That's just WILD !! I never would have thought to model something like that 

 :bow: :bow: :bow:

Mike


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## coopertje (Dec 17, 2010)

Very well done Hobby! I have been following along with great pleasure and the result is amazing. Have a good weekend, regards Jeroen


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## hobby (Dec 17, 2010)

Wow, sorry guys, 
I didn't acknowledge your kind compliments a few days ago, when all these were made, 
usually I like to wait until I have another installment, before I respond to the replies given, so as to not put my thread back at the top of the list without a progress report, but when I happened to see my thread on page 1 again, I thought I better open this up, and wow, all these kind replikes, I thought I better acknowledge these even though I don't have any progress installments at the moment.

So first,

THANKYOU everyone, for the nice inputs, that gives me an incentive to keep up with this project to the finish.

Kel, 
Thankyou for the nice compliment.
I was using 3in1 oil for the demonstration, since I have no seals anywhere I do get air in the lines after awhile of use, however surprisingly, have not seen any significant leaks, after sitting on the bench for a week.
The air gets into the lines when I drive the actuators, past the model cylinders piston throw, and the oil has to go somewhere so out the cylinders.
Hopefully when I get a joystick made, I can controle better the amount of pressure on the actuators.

Thankyou, everyone for the encouraging compliments.
It is compliments like that that help keep us going on with our projects.

Thankyou,

Kel, Carl, Ron, Kevin, Randy, Tom, Mike, Jeroen.

And anyone I may have missed.

I, have been working on making some tool holders for my lathe, to get a small break away from this main project, since it is mostly all probably balsawood model making now, so I need to step back and take a small breather to think through how to build the rest of this, so in the meanwhile, I've been working on tooling projects.
Eventually, I am going to convert my micromill from gear driven, to belt pulley driven, because the gear bushings are becoming a bother to keep on repairing, so either I will buy the kit from littlemachineshop. or fabricate my own.

As well as keeping up with the build on this model too.

Until then thanks again guys, 
I will be posting more on this as it progresses again, just a small delay for the moment.

Have fun in the shop...


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## checkedout (Dec 18, 2010)

hobby. Truly remarkable work.

I'd love to develop just HALF the skills you are exhibiting here.  

Keep up the good work. I'll certainly be tracking the remainder of your progress.

When this is all built, will you make me one for my kids?


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## hobby (Jan 2, 2011)

Hi "checkedout"
Thankyou for posting the nice compliment.

------------------------------------------------

Progress has gone from model engineering mode, to model making mode.

I have a base made for it, and permanent attachment of all the model parts to it with a contact cement glue.

The begining of the joystick is shown, still need to fabricate a handle for it, then attach it by spring tension to the center of its location.

Then begin model making a cabin to sit ontop of the table unit.

Here is one pic. to date on the model.

Have a great week.


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## tel (Jan 2, 2011)

It's a truly remarkable bit of work!


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## mklotz (Jan 2, 2011)

I hope you have a nice big mantel over your fireplace because, after you take that thing to your first model engineering exhibition, you're going to have a bunch of whacking great trophies to find place for.


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## checkedout (Jan 2, 2011)

hobby  said:
			
		

> Hi "checkedout"
> Thankyou for posting the nice compliment.



... so, about that model for my 'kids'


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## hobby (Jan 3, 2011)

Tel,
Thankyou , for the complement. Very well appreciated.

Marv, 
A trophie winner, gee, I never thought of that.. scratch.gif
But anyway, thankyou for the real nice complemnt, it is very well appreciated...


Checkedout:
Thanks for checking in,
about that modfel for your kids, I think it would be a good idea not to let them see this thread,
otherwise you may be building one of these for them... ;D
when I post the video of it finally running, I'll put a note , " adult content, kids, you must have your parents permission to view this video"..... th_rulze

Thanks again everyone..
Have a great day..


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