Best way to do small production run?

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

You will need to prepare proper drawings & hawk them round various vendors to get a true cost. You will get 1001 different solutions on this site so you will need to sort the good from the not so good suggestions.

Tony

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Martin King 2 on 24/01/2018 20:26:38:

I need to make parts that are as close to original as possible.

.

Just in case it wasn't obvious, Martin

The lathe-steady components were direct 3D prints in 'Bronze-infused Stainless Steel'

**LINK**

Steel – 3D Printing Material

Probably not cost-effective for you, but very interesting.

MichaelG.

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

+1 on Tony Pratt's suggestion. CAD models of shapes, do drawings with tolerances and possible material candidates, send for quotes. That's how it is done in industry.

If there is something you are not sure of the best way to do or to spec, there is nothing wrong with adding a note saying " PROSPECTIVE VENDORS PLEASE SUGGEST ALTERNATE MATERIAL OR METHOD OR TOLERANCE THAT CAN BE HELD, IF NOTED SPECS ARE NOT SUITABLE TO YOUR FIRM'S PROCESSES"

This type of note has started many productive discussions with vendors about ways to do things and materials to use that I and people at the firms I've worked for never thought about before.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

+1 for Jeff's suggestion

Ian P

[Steve PaveyParticipant @stevepavey65865]

For casting, a couple of companies spring to mind – for cast iron there is a casting company in Bridport that have some connections with Stuart Models – can’t remember their name but you may already know of them. If you want to have the part cast in bronze then Classic Marine may be able to help as they do small runs of bespoke items.

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

Hi All,

Regarding the spokeshave blades I think that I will at least have a go at making, say, 4 or so and see how I get on.

I have never bought any gauge plate or steel stock before. Is there a minimum order? Do they cut to width for the customer? Best place to buy from please?

The foundry at Stuart Models in Bridport is very handy for me as we buy tools at the Bridport market most Saturdays and Wednesdays so will take the sample in and have a chat to them as a first enquiry.

Just had a look at Fusion 360 and cannot see how to export a DXF file, not in the export list?

Regards, Martin

[egaParticipant @ega]

Posted by Martin King 2 on 24/01/2018 18:04:23:

ega

quote: Stanley no 71 spokeshave/rabbet plane.

Are you sure?

Nothing showing in Patrick's Blood & Gore!

If you don't use this give yourself a treat, Patrick is a great mate of mine and this is THE definitive Stanley work.

My source is the 1939 Stanley "catalog". If you are interested I can post an extract to my album. I admit I was puzzled by this but I am no great expert and understand that numbering anomalies occurred.

Thanks for the link.

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

So you want 1.5mm [1/16"] gauge plate, what width? Many suppliers in UK, usually no minimum order on this.

Tony

[K.J. KroekerParticipant @k-j-kroeker84050]

Exporting a DXF in fusion can only be done from the sketch menu – it's the last item in the menu. When you do so, splines are converted to polylines. You could also export a dwg file in the drawings environment and convert that to DXF in most 2D CAD packages.

[Steve PaveyParticipant @stevepavey65865]

This might be a useful article **LINK**

Current thinking amongst the woodworking tool nuts is that plane irons and similar should be either A2 or O1 tool steel (with a lot of discussion over which is best). From what I can gather O1 is just the AISI designation for silver steel or gauge plate, and A2 is a more sophisticated CrMo alloy (according to my black book). Some suppliers of the more expensive edge tools, like Veritas and Lie Nielsen, specify which of these materials they use for their blades. It may be worth seeing if Clifton Tools are able to supply you with the correct material, or even if they would do a short run for you – the worst they will do is say no! Clifton Planes are manufactured by Thomas Flinn now, as they took the Clifton company over in 2014 **LINK**

Presumably, if you find someone to water jet some blanks for you, the machining and subsequent heat treatment is not a problem?

Edited By Steve Pavey on 25/01/2018 21:23:03

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

One of my plane irons is actually 2 pieces of steel & if one looks closely one can see where the smaller cutting section overlaps the larger clamping section. It is a very old wooden jointing plane & I have no idea why it was done like that but holds its edge very well

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Sam Longley 1 on 25/01/2018 22:25:16:

One of my plane irons is actually 2 pieces of steel & if one looks closely one can see where the smaller cutting section overlaps the larger clamping section. It is a very old wooden jointing plane & I have no idea why it was done like that but holds its edge very well

.

Probably 'crucible steel' for the cutting edge, and something more mundane for the bulk.

MichaelG.

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi Martin

To export as DWG or DXF

Open Fusion and show the data panel on the left if it is not already open by clicking the 3×3 grid of squares icon.

Double click your name or move to your project if you have created one and double click the project name at the top of the file data panel this will take you to a cloud directory where you will see your files.

Hover your cursor over the file you wish to export and look for the three small icons to the right of each file. select the little down pointing arrow icon and you will see the available file types to export

When you convert the file via Autodesk cloud services. Autodesk will email a link you can use to download the converted file. The link lasts for a week.

I was using this method today.

As an alternative you can directly export to a Step file on your local computer, and a number of other formats as well.
I was able to import a 3D step file directly into Autocad today and it was editable.
I am yet to determine if there is any difference when exporting a solid via the two methods.

Note 2D drawings created in fusion can also be exported to dxf but not as one file 3D objects travel alone,
I have not tried this yet.

My battle learning Fusion continues, It will be some time, before my Fusion editing speed approaches my Acad editing speed. In particular I miss in place editing of xrefs, using Fusion you have to open the file stand alone. A real pain. Autodesk stated on their forum that they have been "working on it" for over a year, but no indication of when is given.

Regards
John

[Martin King 2Participant @martinking2]

John Mc,

Many thanks for the lucid explanation!

I really enjoy learning Fusion but at times it is not very intuitive…

At the moment I would rate my skill level at 2 or 3 out of 10!

Sal Longley,

Laminated plane and chisel irons with a visible line can be much very collectable and valuable. I actively look for these when 'hunting'; often I buy old wormy planes just for the irons which sell very well if rare. I just sold a Moulson Bros set of 8 laminated tapered irons for nearly £50 which is good for a £2 boot sale buy!

Went to Australia so a collector can bin his 'non OEM' irons in his rare Moulson plane.

Cheers, Martin

[Adam CroParticipant @adamcro58170]

Martin,

To re-produce your cast item you would be best modelling it in CAD to have a 3D printed master pattern made and then finding a foundry that are happy to work with 3D printed patterns. With the size it is you may be able to find an investment casting foundry that does CI and can do you the mould from your pattern which will give you the great surface finish.If not then finding a sand casting foundry that will work with the pattern.

For the printing there are plenty of online places that can help, one I have used in the past are in London called 3D print UK, very good service and the free polishing service worked great for some sand cast door handles I had done in bronze for a Bugatti.

You need to discuss with them what shrinkage you need to apply to your pattern which the CAD software should allow you to do by "scaling" the part by a certain percentage. If it is for Investment casting there are two types, the shrinking of the wax and then the metal but they should give you the overall shrinkage, the sand casting is simpler only considering the metal shrinkage which again they should be able to advise on.

Last thing to think about is any machining allowance you need to add on the relevant faces and where you can have sprues/runners attached – ideally the machined faces.

Once you have this 3D model you could design tooling and fixtures to hold it with for your machining set ups to make batch machining much easier and quicker.

Hope that helps,

Adam

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

These people will take your CAD model and do the wax work and then cast it in bronze. I think Neil posted them a while ago and I suggested them to someone else who has had some parts cast in aluminium but he made his own patterns, moulds and waxes. have a read of how he did it on MEM

 

Sintered Stainless was mentioned above, The same chap also did quite a bit of research into various printed metals and they were either very hard to machine and/or tollerance was very poor. Michael if you are short of something to read on the bus his findings can be seen in this thread

Edited By JasonB on 26/01/2018 13:28:56

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 26/01/2018 13:17:17:

Sintered Stainless was mentioned above, The same chap also did quite a bit of research into various printed metals and they were either very hard to machine and/or tollerance was very poor. Michael if you are short of something to read on the bus his findings can be seen in this thread

.

Thanks, Jason

I suspected there may be some difficulty, because the parts for the steady seem to have been withdrawn.

… Hoped it was just a matter of cost.

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Jason,

The video about the turbine blades is particularly interesting.

I do find it hard to comprehend how they can produce 'bronze-infused stainless steel' parts for only twice the price of a 'laser printed rigid white plastic' one. [prices in the opening post of your link]

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I suppose it is cheaper to print that laser binding but the costs of putting it in a furnace etc don't seem to add much to the price unless there is a typo.

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