First Ever Machining Project (Rupnow H&M)

[Brian Rupnow]

Tom--I'll say it to you, because nobody said it to me and I almost had a heart attack. The first time you ever put the boring head in your mill--MAKE SURE THE SPEED CONTROL IS SET TO ZERO. Then turn it up very slowly, until you find a "sweet spot" where the mill is running fast enough to cut, but not so fast that the mill tries to walk around the room. Boring heads are notoriously unbalanced, and the larger the hole is that you are boring, the more out of balance they get.---Brian

 

[wagnmkr]

Thank You Brian. I had sort of figured that just by the look of the boring head. It will be very slow and steady for sure.

Thanks for lookin out for me ... I need all the help I can get.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[wagnmkr]

Well, I waited all day Friday, but the boring head didn't show. Saturday ended up to be a domestic day with little time for anything else.

Today I finally got to do some milling. I set the con rod blank on a scrap of corian and went to work. I got it to the point where I am ready to mount it on the rotary table and do the end profile. The 1/4" hole in the big end will be the pivot point for the outside radius.

That's my wee bite of the elephant for today.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[wagnmkr]

Today in the went pretty smooth, all things considered. I managed to get the big end and little end of the con rod to shape. Now I just have to finish the profile to the right size, and drill and bore out the big end.

All parts are here for the boring head now so I am going to try it out on a piece of scrap and see how it works, remembering, as Brian said, to start at 0 rpm.

My back and legs are giving me a hard time so it is time to rest em up a bit.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Tom--I'm still watching!!! Are you still working???----Brian

 

[wagnmkr]

Hi Brian.

Yup, I am still sort of at it, but some real life stuff and some medical stuff has been interfering. I will be back at it pretty quick here.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[wagnmkr]

Well, after some personal stuff and some technical stuff, I finally have a connecting rod which will likely be done again at some point but for now, it will connect the piston to the crank shaft.

I am not getting on well with the milling machine at all and if we don't become friends pretty soon, I don't know what will happen.

I do suffer from a very short attention span these days so that could be a large part of it.

So here it is, warts and all.....

 

[Swifty]

Hi wagnmkr, the conrod will be ok. It looks like the outside radius on the big end is not concentric to the bore, it won't make any difference when it is running. Maybe you need to revise your location methods when milling the rads next time. Keep up the good work

Paul.

 

[wagnmkr]

Thanks Paul. The conrod was moved too many times during it's making and the outside was done before the inside. You are absolutely right ... I need to revise how I do things.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Tom--It helps to remember--"Do the critical things first.--Do the cosmetic things second!!" I know, you can't always do that, and sometimes I still get it wrong. Just remember how we get good at things.--A lot of the times, by screwing up. We never forget when we do that, and next time we run up against a similar situation, we will take steps to not repeat the same mistake.----Brian

 

[Swifty]

I'm not so sure Brian, I don't know how many times I've said to myself "I won't make that same mistake again" , and gone and done it.

Paul.

 

[wagnmkr]

Thanks Brian,

In my case it is part memory memory lose, part poor attention span, and part just plain ineptitude at machining. I get very frustrated with myself when I mess up :wall: and that just makes me mess up more.

Oh Well ... I have more than enough left over material to do it again when I get around to it.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[wagnmkr]

Brian, I am afraid that due to circumstances beyond my control, I will not be carrying on with this build for the moment. If all goes well, I may get back to it in late spring. Sorry to get your hopes up for another completed Rupnow Hit and Miss.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Tom--All the best, and I hope things improve for you.---Brian