POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[7milesup]

I bought this 8-drawer cabinet years ago (20?) that was getting to the point it needed a fresh coat of paint. As my Mom used to say, "If the barn needs painting, then paint it," which was her response to women wearing make-up. I always got a kick out of that.
I believe that this cabinet is a Vidmar, but not sure. It was used in our local Farm & Fleet for displaying and storing Porter Cable router bits. It had a top on it at one point with a Lexan cover to display all of the varieties of router bits that were in the cabinet. Farm & Fleet were changing their router bit supplier (or maybe downsizing that department, don't remember), but they had this cabinet in the bargain aisle. They had just put it out and didn't have a price on it yet. I knew the store manager very well at the time, and he said, "how about $60 bucks?" SOLD!! Best deal ever!
Anyhow, here it is before and after. I used Sunnyside Back to Nature stripper (yes, I did leave some $1's behind in the stripper aisle). Next up was Krylon Fusion-All-In-One Gloss Red Pepper for the drawer fronts. I love the red color but had a heck of a time with their paint. It took forever to dry, and when I went to touch up one of the drawers, the paint wrinkled slightly, which indicates that it was not completely cured, even though it was well past their 24-hour recoat time. The dark color is Rust-Oleum Hammered Flat Black.

 

[Just for fun]

Made a conversation piece for my brothers' birthday. I didn't have the right size drill bit for the brass nut I'm making for it 9/16x18. The drill bit should be here tomorrow then I will replace the commercial nut with the brass nut. Looks a lot better than the first one I made when I first got my lathe.

View attachment 418071

I probably made a mistake my drilling it out to 1/2", drilling brass is a little touchy.

View attachment 418072

I finished the knurled but today, I think it turned out pretty good.

 

[Doug Gray]

I did an overnight emergency service job for work. These are extruder machine wheel axles. 1 1/4" major diameter, bearing seat area and snap ring groove. About two hours work... good fun. I used some old anchor bolts for material.

 

[dkemppai]

Started printing out a couple gears for my atlas 10f:
Going to give them a try and see if it calms down some of the ring, clash and rattle noises.

...

I’m kind of hoping the abs gears will absorb some of the clashing/ringing in the gear train and quiet the whole machine down.
These are a first kick at the cat, mostly a “proof of concept”. If it works, I’ll redesign them to incorporate a bronze bushing to run on the pins/bolts/axles they run on.

Please report back how it works! I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)

 

[great white]

Please report back how it works! I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)

From post # 7264:

 

[dkemppai]

From post # 7264:

Yeah, I eventually did see it. Sometimes when I click on the email updates to the threads here, I don't get all of the pages until AFTER I post. Not sure what that's about...

 

[great white]

Yeah, I eventually did see it. Sometimes when I click on the email updates to the threads here, I don't get all of the pages until AFTER I post. Not sure what that's about...

no worries. was just calling it to your attention since you asked.

 

[projectnut]

Please report back how it works! I've got some rattling in my sheldon, mostly due to a few worn brass gears. I thought about doing something very similar. (Although I've started collecting parts for an ELS upgrade...)

Does your Sheldon have a phenolic gear in the mix? Many models have one to minimize gear noise, and as a sacrificial element in the event of a crash. Often times they get swarf imbedded between the teeth. When that happens the gear train starts to rattle. I've used a dental pick to remove imbedded swarf from the phenolic gear, and even some that got stuck between the teeth of other gears.

There are members of the Practical Machinist board that recreate brass and phenolic gears for Sheldon machines. Be sure to get the bore and tooth count because there are several different gears available depending on the age and size of the machine.

 

[dkemppai]

Does your Sheldon have a phenolic gear in the mix? Many models have one to minimize gear noise, and as a sacrificial element in the event of a crash. Often times they get swarf imbedded between the teeth. When that happens the gear train starts to rattle. I've used a dental pick to remove imbedded swarf from the phenolic gear, and even some that got stuck between the teeth of other gears.

There are members of the Practical Machinist board that recreate brass and phenolic gears for Sheldon machines. Be sure to get the bore and tooth count because there are several different gears available depending on the age and size of the machine.

Honestly, I don't have the machine right now so can't look. It's out having the ways rebuilt/scraped. The noisy gears are the brass ones that drive directly off the spindle. They're worn to the point that there's almost no teeth left. I think there is a phenolic gear further down the train, but IIRC that one still looks good.

If can 3D print replacements for the brass, I might do so. Partially because it should (in theory) be easy, partially because maybe they'll be the weak link in the case of a crash.

Long term, I would really like to install an ELS. Turns out that if you leave the second tumbler just hanging, the screw free wheels. If the other end of the screw was driven with a servo, with the servo off or disabled that would also free wheel. That way both systems could be installed and functional on the lathe.

Part of the reason for the ELS is to quiet up the lathe. No gears spinning = quiet lathe!
But, I'd like to do so in a way that leaves the lathe pretty much intact. The other reason for the ELS is metric threads, or BA threads, or...

 

[great white]

Honestly, I don't have the machine right now so can't look. It's out having the ways rebuilt/scraped. The noisy gears are the brass ones that drive directly off the spindle. They're worn to the point that there's almost no teeth left. I think there is a phenolic gear further down the train, but IIRC that one still looks good.

If can 3D print replacements for the brass, I might do so. Partially because it should (in theory) be easy, partially because maybe they'll be the weak link in the case of a crash.

Long term, I would really like to install an ELS. Turns out that if you leave the second tumbler just hanging, the screw free wheels. If the other end of the screw was driven with a servo, with the servo off or disabled that would also free wheel. That way both systems could be installed and functional on the lathe.

Part of the reason for the ELS is to quiet up the lathe. No gears spinning = quiet lathe!
But, I'd like to do so in a way that leaves the lathe pretty much intact. The other reason for the ELS is metric threads, or BA threads, or...

You can't really print in metal with a home machine.

Best you can get is a filament with metal in it, but it's still plastic so you might as well just pick a filiment that meets you needs and print with that.

You also need special nozzles if you want to print anything with anything abrasive (carbon, metals, etc) in it. I've got the right nozzles and they aren't cheap.

Basically, you need stainless steel nozzles instead of the standard brass. You can print with the brass nozzles, but they will wear quickly and cause all manners of issues with your prints.

It is also advisable to have a direct extruder and upgrade the hot end. Most stock hot ends you get with a machine are so woefully underpowered they barely keep up with the smallest nozzles, so You're pretty much dealing with 0.2-.04 nozzles. Doable, but it will take days to print anything large. Small nozzles just don't put a lot fo material down at once. they're fantastic for small, very detailed prints, but they are painfully slooooooowwwwwww on anything else.....