2020 POTD Thread Archive

A couple of projects,
At one time these were available at the hardware store, but alas no more. Spearing suckers is legal and they are a great canning fish.
Made the tips from grade 8 bolts so I could harden them, the barb is a piece of a band saw blade off the saw mill, silver soldered into a slit. The rest is just cold roll. A coat of powder coat and we have a spear.
Now waiting for the creeks to warm up for the run.
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Decided to build a 6 x 6 sine plate with no immediate need for one.
The plates are 1inch hot roll, the hinge and anvil? are hardened and ground shaft.
Got the plates within a 1/2 thou of square, the rolls within a 1/2 thou of 5 inches spacing, and the top within 2 tenths of flat.
Still need to make side plates and a tie down strap.
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Greg
 
Final installation of X-axis DRO sensor. I machined the sensor bracket and spacer.


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Looks like the post got deleted in the site move, so re-post with an abbreviated write-up. More or less finished up the enclosure for the Tormach. Didn't shoot a lot of photos as much of the work was cutting panels on the table saw. Made some swing-blocks from aluminum to hold the side panels up. The end panels slide in a dado cut into some polyethylene blocks. Needed something to hold them in the up position.


Faced some 1/2" aluminum for mounting blocks and swing-arm details
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Aluminum was already radiused on one side, did the opposite side with a corner-rounding end mill
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Drilling a 1/4" hinge pin hole in the swing arm
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Drilling a 1/4" hinge pin hole in the mounting block
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Components on the left, assembly on the right. Used 1/4" dowel pins for the hinge pins
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Drilled the swing arm detail off-center by 0.020" so it had some clearance to the side rails in the "hold open" position.
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Works great. Lift the side panel (weighs about 5 lbs.) and swing the arm in place to hold it open.
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The previous owner of my Tormach had a MistAway coolant filter inside the enclosure. I mounted it using Creform tubing and brackets.
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I added windows to the end panels and removed the diagonal bracing that ran from the rear vertical tubing to the front of the chip pan. I'd added bracing at the top to support the MistAway unit and lights which really stiffened up the enclosure. Will replace the green garden hose coolant feed line with either stainless braided hose or black garden hose (just for aesthetics).
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The back panels are in two pieces and snap to the top rail. I didn't take a picture of the top panel, but it's a sheet of corrugated polycarbonate. It snaps to the top railing for easy removal.

Also did some power cord clean up. The 110/220 feeds to the machine are now at the Y-axis stepper making it more convenient to remove power (plugs were at the top of the machine). Still need to route shop air to the back of the mill.

I was going to build a low-profile cart that fits under the RH side of the mill from Creform tubing, but will more likely use a HF 16 x 30 cart and cut down the corner angles. I'll throw ancillary things like the 4th axis when not in use and some spare tool holders.
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I had planned on making a power panel with switchable outlets to manually turn on/off the lights, MistAway (it's pretty loud), coolant tank bubbler, etc. Instead, went with some remote control outlets from Menards. It gives me 3 switchable 110's with the push of a button.
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Still have a few more things to wrap up. I have a Millfast Products remote switch box that needs to be mounted and wired. Current plan is to mount it on the RH door frame.
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Plan on moving the coolant wash-down hose from the back of the enclosure to the front. I currently have to reach to the back of the enclosure to get to the spray hose. Also need to troubleshoot for leaks. Everything is shingled so stuff hitting the side panels "should" manage back into the chip pan, but . . .
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Thanks for looking, Bruce
 
Final installation of X-axis DRO sensor. I machined the sensor bracket and spacer.

Very clean looking installation.:aok:
Please post the model and source of the scale ans sensor.
Thanks.
 
BG, that's a really fantastic looking enclosure ... a real show piece (and functional, too)!
 
Looks like a very nice machine and enclosure, also looks expensive. You would need to put a lot of work through to pay for it.
 
Looks like a very nice machine and enclosure, also looks expensive. You would need to put a lot of work through to pay for it.
Thanks! Tormach gets $3K for their enclosure. I've got around $300 into mine, plus a lot of hours of fab work. One thing they did better than me is the front door opening. Theirs opens to 50", mine to 36". They pull this off by making both front door windows move, it behaves like a full-extension drawer glide. I could do the same thing and put the fixed panel on a track also, but it's so easy to pull a pin and swing the door open I'll probably leave it alone.

I still need to troubleshoot for leaks as there are a few openings. For example, I have about an 1/8" gap between the top and the tubular framework. I'm hoping stuff doesn't spray up more than 4' above the table! If it does, I'll attach some 1/16" sheet rubber weatherstriping.

Bruce



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