What have you been doing today?

[awake]

Here is a new OpenSCAD library that I have been developing; it allows taking an object and "spiralizing" it. In other words, one can start with a tapered cylinder like this:

and turn it into a spiral like this:

 

[Bentwings]

What have I been doing ? I had a melt down today , it was near 0 deg f with stiff wind blows . I walked up to mail box only to find over size box frozen shut I couldn’t even get key in lock walked back home fuming . Go Ed 40 and syringe of marvel oil good combo for frozen locks walke back up to mail box managed to get letter box open but still could not get big box open . I bashed it a couple time with my cane and hammered door with hand the whole unit nearly fell over as steel bolts have rusted through stomped back home really fuming now not even cold . Cussed at minn weather . Asked myself why I still live here . I don’t know . Came home fed kitty and brushed her she does not irritate often but she did well so I guess she liked it then grabbed my mail bag and trusty cane for another go plus added box cutter . Stomped back up to mail box really hot now Small box opened fine again. But big box still resisted even getting key in lock . Got it in half way then hit it with cane and it went in then it was near impossible to turn. Fortunately I still have pretty strong fingers and hands I go it to move a little then wiggled it and it turned but door was frozen solid . I gave a good kick and so cuss words . And the corner opened I pried on it using cane for extra leverage . It finally opened. Now box is frozen in 3/4” of ice it moving so I slashed it open and peeled it away turned out to be the four bags of kitty food . Carefully peeled them out and stuffed them in my mail bag . 20 pounds it’s 1/2 mile home freezing north wind I’m not even supposed to go out in freezing weather but I was just melting down so not cold I stomped all the way home dragging this bag that should have been delivered to my doo per instructions So I got home ok put kitty food away and got hot coffee . I looked up post office number it’s just across high way . Don’t even bother to call us post office it’s a total waste of time . It’s warmer today so I’ll walk back up but I’ll leave a note for the delivery person . Our national post office is in deplorable condition their delivery vehicles ar so rusted I thing it is just rust holding them together. Anyway I’ve cooled off some now this is the 4th time this winter this has happened.

 

[MRA]

Flipping Heck, that sounds cold. I live in the middle of a city in Northern England - the warm concrete means we rarely get a freeze, but when we do we find out how ill-prepared we are. Seen a few blue tits about this morning, 45F (in your money ) outside, neighbours snowdrops coming out - it's cheering me up. Nothing like fury for a bit of instant central heating, is there!

 

[lee webster]

For the first time in years I didn't have to get up during the night to use the loo. I think it might be because I decided not to have bread with my meal last night, thats the first time I've gone without bread with a meal for many years. I will stay off bread for a while to see what occurs. I might have to start thinking about a different diet.
Bentwings, I used to love the winters here in the UK. I lived in a town called Hemel Hempstead (also known as treacle bumpstead) for 46 years until moving to Cornwall 23 years ago. The difference in weather between the two places is remarkable. Hemel is barely 300 miles away as the crow flies, and the winters were (are still) harsh. Apparently that's why the Romans didn't build much in Hemel, too cold for them. Here in Cornwall I have only scraped ice from my windscreen a few dozen times in 23 years. I think it has snowed here maybe a dozen or so times. I used to love winter, but I prefer the climate here more! Plus my arthritis doesn't play up anywhere near as much as it did in Hemel. It has been so mild here recently I even mowed my lawn 3 weeks ago, it could do with another cut now.

 

[WisJim]

This year we went to Pueblo, Colorado before Christmas and stayed 5 weeks with our son and grandson, then came home to Western Wisconsin where everything is cold and snow and ice covered. In Colorado we were outside in shirt sleeves on Christmas, and if it snowed, we hurried up and took the grandson sledding before it melted. They might get 6" of snow but 3 days later it is 50 degrees F again. If we hadn't just spent 3 years getting moved from the farm into town I might move there permanently.

 

[Bentwings]

Looks like it will start snowing to night then all week finishing Friday with -8 deg below zero fri morning. I’ll have to start by turning expensive heat up then running hot water occasionally I have RV anti freeze to pour down drains so traps don’t freeze poor home design. There are heat tapes on the water lines from the well but they come up under the house so the crawl space need radiant get from floor . It would have been simple to have a small dryer duct off the main heater ducts that you could open as needed . I’ll add an under home temp sender so I can better monitor it I usually just run the clothes dryer right before bed time it seems to help as the vent goes under the home . Sub zero is a problem in the community . We got 2.5” rain last week so all yard snow is now ice snow. Glad I shoveled when I did. Deck is clear except for a little ice from roof . I just don’t enjoy freezing cold. I used to play hockey in sub zero cold .

 

[Joe]

Well I've been finishing up lots of little projects today but the first thing I did is earth shattering.
About 10 years ago my wife found a zippered hoody for a couple of bucks at the Sally Anne. It was great and quickly became my favorite article of clothing. Then a year or so ago the zipper started coming apart after it zipped about six inches. I whined, I cried, I had a tantrum but of course non of that really helped. I searched for a replacement, I Googled zippers, I talked to my seamstress neighbor, but no solution, just bleak depression.
So today I decided that today was the day, out to the shop and fix it. I'm a tad embarrassed to say that 2 minutes later the sun was shining, the birds were chirping and my zipper was fixed. All is right in the world again, well at least my world anyway.

John

 

[Propforward]

I did some welding. I won’t claim to be good at it, but I sure enjoyed it.

 

[Hiedadam]

Well I don’t have anything to contribute to the rest of the forum yet. So I guess I can start here. Woke up at 5am, went on a 62 mile bike ride. Then had breakfast with my wife. Counted down for when my onefinity elite will arrive, and started looking at taig mills. Can’t decide if I want manual or cnc. Homework, then went to the airport and bolted the new engine to the plane (Dragonfly mkIIh). Came home and continued redrawing Hummelbird plans. I have far too many hobbies, and don’t know why I’m getting another degree. Oh and made this as my first post.

 

[Steamchick]

Welcome Hiedadam! Looking forward to more posts - when you find a spare moment.
Today I plan to check-over a model of a generator made from 2 Sturmey Archer bicycle wheel hub generators, that is temporarily set up with an old twin-cylinder single-acting oscillator. A much better use of the parts than using them on a bicycle! (Would slow your 62 mile ride!). There's a Model Engineering show in Harrogate (North of England) in the beginning of March so this needs to be cleaned and tidied-up before joining the display. Bring on the Brasso! - Not expecting it to look good, but if there is a lot of mediocre stuff on the display table, the good stuff looks really good, the "initiated" hang about for a chat or to tell us how much better their model is (that they do not display), but the "less interested tourists" take a quick glance and move on to a stand full of shiny metal, where they can but something finished... That way we get fewer people on the stand and more "relaxing" time...
Maybe Photos to follow?
K2

 

[Old Guy]

Well I most disappointingly took my first foray into screw cutting, the prize would be a simple draw bar to adapt an ER 32 collet chuck with MT4 taper fitting into my lathe spindle this exercise has been shown by Blondihacks and seemed quite simple although I don't think she went into great detail about actually changing the gears but that is by the by.Now at this point I should say that my lathe is a very a similar model to her lathe and was working quite well and relatively quietly so the first thing I needed to do was to make sure that the standard line up of gears was noted to go back to after screw cutting was completed as there is no list in the manual about this and so I noted what they were as I removed them and I think it was a straight drive through on one line but duly noted I set about finding the gears required to do the M16 2mm thread needed, some were being used on the original set up and the others were in my gear set, now most of the gears were flat on one side and had a raised ridge on the edge and centre boss on the other side apart from two of the smaller gears that were both smooth both sides, any way I got the gears together to do the job in hand at this point I should say that the gear mounting mechanism was to say the least very disappointing in that when you try to undo the nut to remove the gear, the spindle and every thing comes away from the banjo in bits rather than leaving a spindle attached to the banjo to slide the new gears on to, a very poor design to my mind, anyway onward and upward as they say so I mounted the gears in the order required which basically meant the the final drive gear needed a spacer first then the gear so I fitted the spacer that was originally fitted on the other end of the last set up only to find that the last two gears then rubbed together side on side, now I thought I could use a small gear with the ridges on one side to get better spacing but I had none left small enough to do the job so I put a small washer between the gear and spacer to stop the gears rubbing and this worked.
So now to the test run, I can not tell you how bad the gear noise was despite setting them up with plenty of backlash, they were definitely not binding but these gears must be so badly manufactured that they shouldn't really be sold as usable, one of the new gears started to bind up on about 15% of its circumference so must be way out of true and none of them seemed to mesh well to one another, these are cast metal gears not plastic so all in all a very disappointing first attempt gear cutting, Still it can only get better I suppose because I don't think it could get any worse and it looks like I need to make a different system that leaves the spindles attached to the banjo when removing gears.Hey Ho life goes on and what don't kill you makes you stronger or so they say.
Well you asked what I've been doing today.

john

 

[Steamchick]

Hi John, A pity your gears appear to be out-of-true? I have a "cheap and cheerful" Chinese built lathe and the gears are adequately accurate. I know the arrangement of spindle mounting you describe, but it is based on an "old design" from either US or UK lathe... reminds me of the lathes I used 50-odd years ago when at school. I suspect it was the first design that packed all the bits in place that was cheap... and the Chinese copied the "Western" design. Intended for cheap, rather than cheerful! I guess only a few % of lathe customers actually do anything with change gears more than once a year! - So "Cheap" is what counts to make the sale.
Get back to the suppliers and complain, they usually send another set (just as badly made?) but you may get lucky?
I use grease to lubricate all my change wheels, as this does make things a bit quieter, but my memory "of old" says the change gears on all lathes with adjustable centre distances, gears bolted onto a bar, and often very worn, are always noisy (and horribly messy and fiddly!).
Most of the lathes I experienced during the 60s were worn out WW2 lathes, so US and UK manufacture. Even as late as mid-1980s some were still in main use in UK factories, slowly being replaced by CNC machining centres after 45years HARD use. So I am well used to hearing worn and noisy change gears! - But they still feed tools and cut the threads...
But you probably need a replacement for the binding gear, then it is just a matter of "best setting" when you fit the gears on the mounting-bar. Just remember, open straight gears will be incredibly noisy compared to helical gears in an oil bath closed gear-box - where the sound is damped and mostly cannot escape...
K2

 

[Old Guy]

Hi Steamchick yes I hear what you say I had watched a vid by Ades workshop on how to fit a gear set up on his little lathe a Warco 180 and his machine left the spindles fixed to the banjo, they had flats on the end to put a spanner on while you undid the nuts to remove the gears and to move the gear clusters into mesh you could undo with the spanner on the flats and slide the whole gears up and down the banjo then tighten them down I'm now wondering if they might be available as spares that might fit my lathe it would certainly make the whole thing much easier to accomplish. The noise thing is funny because in its original state with gears driving the bar it wasn't noisy at all, they must have spent a lot of time making sure all the gears were good so that when you used it new it sounded fine but all the rest of the gears in the set are garbage I now intend to mount them all on mounting spindles and put them in the chuck and see how far out they are and if they can be improved at all.I would imagine a good deburring will go a long way to sort things out but we shall see
Thanks John

 

[Bentwings]

Back to cold weather. I too use a zippered hoodie most are sweat shirt outer with furry built in liner. If it is really cold and windy I add a windbreaker outer layer. Lined leather gloves ores ly with knit cuffs to keep snow out . Not snow falling but temp is 30s so it’s not staying around yet Coker ontheveay and more dow .

In home doc visit we’d then I&R blood test fri. So week will be full of interruptions . Finally got metric SAE and drill size conversion chart. Unfortunately need mag glass to read it . I ran into fitbissues on the turbines and motor generators the mounting holes are different in each then th dumb set screw on the drive pulleys sticks up so I have to trim each on. I foun a beam coupling that can directl couple them if I trim the set screws itvruns very true so I just have to make more spacers forvthe generators for height with a little trickery I can direct drive a turbine and generator and with a spring belt I can add a second turbine in case the gen takes too much torque . I could run all four turbines together in a line or split the connection and add the 3:1 belt reduction for even more torque . The whole mess will be determined by how well I can drill and tap for m3x.5 threads or I have to go larger screw size. I have both 1/4” and 3/16” 6061 mounting plates while it machines well it’s gummy tapping small holes even with tap magic . I think I’ll make a linear bolt pattern in the 1/4” plate and use it for a tap guide . I don’t have anything thicker here at home.

 

[awake]

Welcome Hiedadam!

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi Steamchick yes I hear what you say I had watched a vid by Ades workshop on how to fit a gear set up on his little lathe a Warco 180 and his machine left the spindles fixed to the banjo, they had flats on the end to put a spanner on while you undid the nuts to remove the gears and to move the gear clusters into mesh you could undo with the spanner on the flats and slide the whole gears up and down the banjo then tighten them down I'm now wondering if they might be available as spares that might fit my lathe it would certainly make the whole thing much easier to accomplish. The noise thing is funny because in its original state with gears driving the bar it wasn't noisy at all, they must have spent a lot of time making sure all the gears were good so that when you used it new it sounded fine but all the rest of the gears in the set are garbage I now intend to mount them all on mounting spindles and put them in the chuck and see how far out they are and if they can be improved at all.I would imagine a good deburring will go a long way to sort things out but we shall see
Thanks John

Maybe you have the gears too close. You needs a tiny space, about the thickness of paper when you set the gears. I always use a strip of paper to space them.

 

[Hopsteiner]

Well it’s Winter and I’ve been looking around my shop, half finished projects sitting there looking at me. One is the DRO I shelved when it got a little difficult. Perfect time to finish. I started by finishing the spindle downfeed read out. After that, I moved on to the Y Axis. Nothing more than perseverance and I finished that. Really, as we know incremental progress is just that, progress. Now, on to the last axis, the knee. I don’t know about you but I’m always thinking about that project I’m working on. I may be talking to my wife but part of my brain is working on how to machine that difficult part I’m trying to machine. Gets me in trouble sometimes. Here’s a few pictures. One picture shows the finished downfeed. The others show the fine feed extension I needed to make because this is an M Head. I’ll send some pictures of the Y Axis later.

 

[Poppy Ott]

Over the past two weekends I added a power feed unit to the Hardinge TM mill. It seems all the after market power feeds are designed for Bridgeport mills. The Hardinge not only does not follow BP design, it has no provision whatsoever for a power feed addition. (The UM version of this mill came with power feed but the method used is of no help on the TM.). Nevertheless, I forged ahead and now have power feed on the x axis.

 

[WisJim]

Bentwings, I was recently looking for a wall chart of drill and tap sizes and equivalents and almost ordered one on eBay, but then discovered that the big Starrett wall chart, as well as the pocket card size version, are available FREE directly from Starrett. I ordered the wall chart and it showed up, totally free, in just a couple of days. You need to go to the Starrett site go to the "catalogs" link, then down the page to "order literature (US/Canada), and then make an account and then go to "conversion charts" and order your wall chart. Other free stuff is under the "Educational" link too. I haven't gotten any email from Starrett after making an account except one confirming my order. By the way, there are people selling the same wall chart on Amazon or eBay for $15--the exact chart you can get free.
I'm not sure if these charts are available outside of the US or Canada.

 

[Bentwings]

Thanks for the info I’ll look into it