Some pics of my workshop

[simonbirt]

Hello Baron,

Thank you for all the pictures and drawings. They have given me a lot to think about. I will probably use a wiper motor as you did as the mounting works well.

The first job is to check dimensions on my mill and see what I have around, may try some 3d printed parts as an experiment and possibly comercial gears rather than cut them. I imagine the loads are not particularly high.

What do you use as a speed controller?

I will start a thread when I have something to show, although this may be a while as I have other projects to finish including a Farm Boy which is taking longer than expected, but hat is another story.

Regards,

Simon

 

[BaronJ]

Hello Baron,

Thank you for all the pictures and drawings. They have given me a lot to think about. I will probably use a wiper motor as you did as the mounting works well.

The first job is to check dimensions on my mill and see what I have around, may try some 3d printed parts as an experiment and possibly commercial gears rather than cut them. I imagine the loads are not particularly high.

What do you use as a speed controller?

I will start a thread when I have something to show, although this may be a while as I have other projects to finish including a Farm Boy which is taking longer than expected, but hat is another story.

Regards,

Simon

Hi Simon,
I have a variable voltage variable current DC power supply. I used to monitor the current drawn when machining things. Most of the time the wiper motor runs at 5 to 10 volts and rarely draws more than 2.5 amps.

I did modify the wiper motor by stripping the socket and connectors from it and drilling out the rivets holding the back plate on. I only did this to make sure that everything inside was lubricated and there wasn't any damaged teeth on the drive gear and that the spindle bearing wasn't warn.

Two things to be aware of ! One the wiper motor is designed to run in one direction only, and two, the motors can be obtained in both left and right hand versions. I chose the one that allows the motor to be mounted to the rear below the level of the top of the machine bed.

Some wiper motors are dual speed I can use either but currently only use the low speed connection. The motors will happily run in either direction but some only have a thrust bearing at one end of the motor worm, others may have two, one at each end of the worm shaft. Using a tumbler gear mechanism it doesn't matter which direction the motor runs to drive the mill table drive gears.

I have some pictures of mods I made.

 

[simonbirt]

Hi Simon,
I have a variable voltage variable current DC power supply. I used to monitor the current drawn when machining things. Most of the time the wiper motor runs at 5 to 10 volts and rarely draws more than 2.5 amps.

I did modify the wiper motor by stripping the socket and connectors from it and drilling out the rivets holding the back plate on. I only did this to make sure that everything inside was lubricated and there wasn't any damaged teeth on the drive gear and that the spindle bearing wasn't warn.

Two things to be aware of ! One the wiper motor is designed to run in one direction only, and two, the motors can be obtained in both left and right hand versions. I chose the one that allows the motor to be mounted to the rear below the level of the top of the machine bed.

Some wiper motors are dual speed I can use either but currently only use the low speed connection. The motors will happily run in either direction but some only have a thrust bearing at one end of the motor worm, others may have two, one at each end of the worm shaft. Using a tumbler gear mechanism it doesn't matter which direction the motor runs to drive the mill table drive gears.

I have some pictures of mods I made.

Hello Baron,

Thanks for your reply. Pictures would be helpful as they say worth, a thousand words.....I will now source a motor as a starting point. I have to say I really like the simplicity of your set up. Some solutions I have seen are overly complicated, using stepper motors, clutches etc.

Regards,

Simon

 

[BaronJ]

Hello Baron,

Thanks for your reply. Pictures would be helpful as they say worth, a thousand words.....I will now source a motor as a starting point. I have to say I really like the simplicity of your set up. Some solutions I have seen are overly complicated, using stepper motors, clutches etc.

Regards,

Simon

Hi Simon,

Here are some pictures of the "Trico" window screen motor that I used.

This is a picture of the wiper motor that I used. Notice the arm which drives the wiper blades. Apart from the nut the only other thing that holds the arm to the drive shaft is some splines.

That shaft was very carefully heated whilst the plastic gear that is attached to it was pressed in place and the nut used to apply just enough force to cause the gear to mold itself onto the splines. After which it was removed. The splines were wire brushed to ensure that they were clean and then a drop of oil was brushed on to stop the gear from sticking permanently to the splines.

This plastic cable connector had the pins with the wires attached removed and thrown away.

This is the identification printed on the motor case. Yours may differ. If its any help I obtained several different wiper motors from a vehicle scrap yard at £1 each. The picture identifys the one I used.

Although there are five pins, only two of them had wires connected !
The third wire is internally connected to the motor case.

As you can see I drilled the rivets out and disposed of these parts.

Inside there are three wipers that run on the brass rings inside that are on the worm wheel. These were also disposed of !

In this picture you can see the remains of the four rivets which were removed and the holes threaded 4BA for the screws used to re-fasten the closing plate.

This picture is a close up of the thrust bearing at the end of the worm. There is a blanking plug that can be removed if needed to gain access to the adjusting screw for the thrust bearing, which is a simple steel ball and adjusting screw. I don't recommend removing the blanking plug unless you have to. On this wiper motor assembly there is a simple ball and a bronze bearing at the other end that supports the motor armature.

I'll post some more pictures in a minute.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Simon, Some more pictures to complete the wiper motor modifications.

These pictures show the splined end of the wiper motor shaft before being cleaned. The bronze bush is pressed into the cast housing and the edge of the hole is crimped over to prevent the bush from coming out or moving under load.

The shaft is a very good fit in this bush and did not exhibit any wear.

This picture shows the hex cap screws that I used to secure the cover plate. In my previous post I said that they were 4 BA, they are M4 and there are five of them. You can see the piece of plastic sheet that I used to blank of the holes in the plate and stop the lubricating grease from escaping.

These are the fast and slow wire connections that I used on mine.

These two pictures show the gear partially pressed onto the drive shaft. You do have to be very careful here not to soften the plastic worm wheel inside the case. Also you have to be careful not to press the plastic gear down too far to avoid it going below the surface of the mounting plate. You can see in this picture that the boss that the mounting plate sits on doesn't give you much room.
When you get to the bottom of the spline don't go any further.

That nut is not the original one ! I used that one because of the built in washer increasing the area that pressure was applied to the gear when pressing it onto the shaft.

Well that just about covers the wiper motor modifications.

Hope this helps with this part.

 

[BaronJ]

Richard, that's the only way that I DO find anything.

I just hate it to look for a missing tool, and as I posted earlier in this thread, I have some nasty gremlins living in my workshop who likes nothing better than to hide my tools if I don't put them away after use.

Hi Henniel, Guys,

At this point I think that I should apologize for hijacking this thread !
I really think that it ought to have gone into its own thread. Maybe one of the moderators should move these posts referring to the "Mill Table Drive" into its own thread.

Thanks for understanding.

 

[stackerjack]

Just came across your picture of your power feed for your mill. I like the idea of a tumbler reverse gear. Could you perhaps post some pictures showing the details?

Do you have any details of your power supply for the wiper motor please?

 

[BaronJ]

Do you have any details of your power supply for the wiper motor please?

I have several commercial variable voltage variable current power supplies, the one I'm using for the mill table drive is this one, but you can use anything that can supply DC at couple of amps and can be varied from a couple of volts to about 15V.

These two pictures show the no load running current at 12 volts and the current running at 12 volts driving the table with a 20 Lb weight placed on it to simulate actual use.

Since I find that using a range of between 4 and 8 volts provides enough cutting speed range the current rarely goes above 2 amps.
I accidentally stalled the mill table once and it just sheared the center out of the drive gear on the wiper motor. Luckily I had several spare gears, they just needed fitting to the motor shaft.

 

[Nimmy_Nile]

Whoa, the workshop looks so cool and organized. All the best

 

[simonbirt]

Hello Baron,

Just spotted your comments on the power supply. All very useful thanks. Will start by gathering bits together ready for when I fancy a change from turning bar stock to swarf for the Farm Boy. Just spent best part of a week making the flywheels from 6” cast iron bar, I may need a change soon.

Regards,

Simon

 

[HennieL]

Whoa, the workshop looks so cool and organized. All the best

Thanks Nimmy - and Welcome to HMEM

Hi Henniel, Guys,

At this point I think that I should apologize for hijacking this thread !
I really think that it ought to have gone into its own thread. Maybe one of the moderators should move these posts referring to the "Mill Table Drive" into its own thread.

Thanks for understanding.

No problem Baron - must say, I've been a bit scarce on the Forum, and appreciate it that you've been keeping this thread alive.

Regards to Everyone

 

[Poppy Ott]

It's fine. You should see MY shop--recently partly cleaned and rearranged it--now, I can almost walk in it. Will be rearranging more, cleaning more and adding more moveable drawers. I am looking into a Chinese lathe, am wondering if anyone has any experience with medium sized ones (under 4000$). I need more space for it. As I am ****** (Borat's "retired"), I don't have much moolah and so make as many of my tools as I can. My biggest prob is that I need to make tools to make the tools to make the tools to make the parts I am making (not a joke). believe it or don't, I just learned my first silver soldering to make internal threads--I was surprised at how easy and effective it was. I have a crappy little Enco lathe (I was used to using REAL machines at work as a machinist), which doesn't even cut left hand threads, is extremely unridged and so on gripe gripe gripe. I have really had to completely re-learn machining to accomodate such a tiny lathe. What I am doing now is making an ER-25 chuck holder for easier holding tiny parts. Since the Enco has a 1-1/2" -8tpi, I have to do those threads internally. With the horribly flexing tool post and the speed of rotation of the chuck, it is nearly impossible. So I have decided to put a crank (actually a steering wheel) on the back side of the lathe head and turn the threads manually.

So for some advice for those who don't know, when yhou get a lathe, make sure there is at least one setting for VERY slow turning, under 50rpms. Your little lathe looks very nice. What brand is it? I can't believe the number of manufacturors of lathes in China--it's incredible. But who to trust?

“. . .I need to make tools to make the tools to make the tools to make the parts I am making . . .” The story of my workshop life.

 

[BaronJ]

Hi Guys,

My apologies ! I'm not going to make any excuses, I had completely forgotten about this thread, so if anyone wants more info please shout out.