2016 POTD Thread Archive

Not immensely complicated but i'm making a V block . I had to hold a round part that I felt was a little too big for my small V blocks so i'm making one . This was a big hunk of 6061 I-beam . I have no clue what it was for, got it in the scrap yard . Been steadily comping away with it . Some slitting saw , face mill , fly cutter . Was getting a weird pattern lastnight with the fly cutter so I reset my nod , tile and everything ...bad idea when it's late and your tired ...I spent 30 minutes chasing my tail checking the L/R head tilt when I realized i was doing it wrong ...lol
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This rough layout is kind of what i'm shooting for .
1-what-im-shooting4.jpg

Cutting the long I-beam ends off
2I-beamSlittingSaw.jpg

Facing the sides one at a time .
3FacingEnds.jpg

This is where im at . Guess i'll see how accurate i've done. Gotta face 2 more sides then I put it in the vise the angle block under it .
4GettingCloser.jpg
 
Rick Berk said:
Amazing what fun could be had with an erector set, I think I got mine at 3 years old and played with it until high school before cars came next, Mine was the Engineer Set in a round 6" cardboard tube with a threaded steel lid. Kind of funny that after the Navy I went to Purdue and got a degree in ME.
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Hi Rick,

These photos bring back any memories?

Bruce

1959 #10011 #10021 #10032.JPG 1960 #10021 & #10032.JPG
 
Subwayrocket said:
Not immensely complicated but i'm making a V block . I had to hold a round part that I felt was a little too big for my small V blocks so i'm making one . This was a big hunk of 6061 I-beam . I have no clue what it was for, got it in the scrap yard . Been steadily comping away with it . Some slitting saw , face mill , fly cutter . Was getting a weird pattern lastnight with the fly cutter so I reset my nod , tile and everything ...bad idea when it's late and your tired ...I spent 30 minutes chasing my tail checking the L/R head tilt when I realized i was doing it wrong ...lol
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This rough layout is kind of what i'm shooting for .
View attachment 140968
Click to expand...
What do you guys think about this ? Looking at the layout it did in red sharpie you can see I don't run the angles all the way to the end. I stop them at flats that are just under 3/4" wide ...my thought is that if I run the angles out too far, the thing would get weak if I held something large enough to contact only at the ends . Do you guys think that's reasonable or could I extend the angles out a little farther ? If I go out just a little farther i'd have 1/2" flats at the ends, and the width it could hold would be greater . This is 6061 , not steel . Anyone have any thoughts on this ?
 
I still have much, most? of my dad's Meccano set from the 1910's. The open frame motor is a real hoot. I also ended up with a couple of the tubes of erector sets. When my daughter saw "Engineering for BOYS" on the label, she about had a cow. She was in her early teens then and is now a aerospace engineer with Lockheed building spacecraft.
The picture of the Meccano box below (from Wikipedia) was very similar to what the box that my dads set looked like. I don't know what happened to the box.

1024px-Meccano_Set,_Edinburgh_Museum_of_Childhood.JPG
 
I think you could extend them further without trouble the weak point is the bottom of the vee which will normally be down on a flat surface such as the table or vise.
 
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