What Did You Do Today (2016)

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Geoff Perkins 1 on 15/11/2016 07:42:47:

Re: cleaning files, i seem to recall an old wives tale that rubbing soap on the file before filing aluminium would stop it from sticking and clogging up the files. Has anyone else heard of this solution? Never tried it myself, but might be worth a shot. I'm currently filing some zinc/aluminium alloy (ZA27) but have had few problems with clogging so far. Most have been solved by a quick rub along the teeth with a wire brush (brass of course).

Hi Geoff,

I suspect it works because you are essentially rubbing a kind of cheap hard grease into the file and this would help to displace any chip that might stick and build up in the teeth.

Special files can be obtained for filing lead that might help with aluminium too.

Michael W

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

This is cheating a bit as it is not so much a "what i did today" but more a "what i am going to do soon"

Does anybody know what robotic carpet cleaner Which magazine voted best buy?

I used to get Which but found it a waste of money as once i bought my TV ( & did not get the one they recommended) & a camera i did not buy anything else that they tested in 2 years

So does anyone else get it & can they give me a clue as to the best buy please

If I wait long enough I expect H Hall might come up with a design but i will be 100yrs old by then !!!

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 15/11/2016 20:54:12

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Sam

I don't know what Which? recommends but my wife knows that the best available ( robotic?) carpet cleaner – is me!

On a more serious note on MAKES of vacuum cleaner I recommend SEBO. Not the cheapest but well made and very effective – although it does require guidance from an operator I'm afraid.

Norman

Edited By NJH on 15/11/2016 21:13:47

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Hi Sam,

A robotic carpet cleaner sounds like a good labour saving device. I bought one, years ago, called "wife" but found that it failed to operate years later and have had to go back and do it manually myself.

Paul

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Norman – +1 for the Sebo. Had one in the old house which went down with the storm. Now have two – one for up and one for down … can't hack the stairs plus carrying cleaner anymore. The bigger (downstairs) one has an odd asymmetric shape for edge cleaning and, like the others, built like the proverbial.

rgds

Bill

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Sam

PM sent re your query.

Martin

[Sam Longley 1Participant @samlongley1]

Posted by Cornish Jack on 15/11/2016 23:37:42:

Norman – +1 for the Sebo. Had one in the old house which went down with the storm. Now have two – one for up and one for down … can't hack the stairs plus carrying cleaner anymore. The bigger (downstairs) one has an odd asymmetric shape for edge cleaning and, like the others, built like the proverbial.

rgds

Bill

Has to be the robotic one I am afraid— !!!!

(I would also point out that wives can be a somewhat expensive investment)

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 16/11/2016 06:18:40

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Bit of progress on the fabricated GH Thomas dividing head – its first job used in anger, to make the secondary "micro adjustment" worm wheel for itself. For the main wormwheel i have used an old Myford 60T change gear. This was used to direct index and cut a 60T secondary wormwheel for the micro-adjustment, an extra accessory that allows fine adjustment down to 1/1000th of a degree, and will be used to make the indexing plates on the dividing head itself with great accuracy.

Anyhow, here is the set up, half-completed dividing head set up on the vertical slide in the lathe, with DP32 gear cutter on arbor in the chuck. The vertical slide is swung around at the helix angle of the worm, 4.2 degrees.

Not a true helical gear, more a straight cut gear with the teeth at a slight angle, seen here

So that the worm itself, also turned up on the lathe, sits straight in relation to the wormwheel instead of offset by the helix angle of 4.2 degrees

On the main wormwheel, made from the straight cut Myford gear, I thinned the thread on the worm so it could be turned that 4 degrees to straight. As it is point-contact only, and not used for transmitting power, it works OK.

So, quite chuffed to use the dividing head already! In fact, using the jury rigged plunger on the teeth of the 60T gear, I can direct index pretty much all divisions one is likely to use for ordinary workshop use, including 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. Eight could be done by making a notched plunger to allow half-tooth indexing.

Putting the finishing touches to the micro-attachment right now so will post some fully assembled pics when it is done, showing how the two wormwheels work together.

Currently also trying to find some 5/32 plate for the index plates. I think I will have to turn them down from 1/4" plate, which makes it a much bigger job, on top of cutting the round blanks by hand then to be followed by drilling the 10 million holes using the micro-adjustment for indexing.

All this so I can make the dozen or so tiny gears for a working model vintage Harley engine!

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

OK, couple more pics of progress to date on the fabricated dividing head, with all the bits and bobs. In the foreground is the tailstock and bar for use when mounting work between centres rather than in the chuck. Plus the direct indexing plunger, adaptor for using same on the gear teeth instead of the yet to be drilled 24 holes in the main gear.

This shows the set up with the two worms and wormwheels for the main and micro adjustments. Worms aligned straight with wheels, despite no fancy hobbed worm wheels.

Showing the micro- adjustment attachment. A graduated collar will go on the spindle at the right, to be retained by that small nut. It will have 100 graduations, so fine adjustment of it will turn the worm, which will turn the wormwheel on the top. The indexing plates will attach to that wormwheel on the left. Thus the graduated collar turns the indexing plate by 6 degrees for every full turn of the graduated collar at the right. Each graduation on the collar threfore will be 1/100th of 6 degrees, or .06 degrees. But the handle for the main worm drive, the one you turn around while counting holes will go on that spindle and nut sticking upwards at the left. So you turn the handle by the requisite number of turns, plus the needed number of holes, then add some small movement of the index plate with the micro-attachment for finer adjustment. Handy for making 127 tooth metric conversion change gears etc that most commercial dividing heads can't do. (Not that I am ever likely to need to do that, being happy to use compound gearing with the standard set of change gears and put up with the 1 in 3,000 error.)

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

Made a few modifications to our Epson XP800 scanner/printer this afternoon so it would not use so much expensive ink.

Rik

[Roger Williams 2Participant @rogerwilliams2]

Hopper, nice job youve done there. Might have a go at one myself one day !.

[Roger Williams 2Participant @rogerwilliams2]

Rik, feel like doing that to peoples mobile phones !!.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

A fine job, Rik

MichaelG.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Hopper ,that looks very nice. What size chuck is on there to give me an idea of scale?

If i was thinking of making something alongst similar lines only scaled up slightly ,would i need to scale up everything or just the casting and spindle?

Also as i havent done any welding for 30 years ,can a cheap stick welder be used to fabricate the main body,i.e like the ones you often see on offer in Aldi and Lidl? Or are they not powerful enough.

Thanks

[MWParticipant @mw27036]

Posted by Rik Shaw on 16/11/2016 17:01:39:

Made a few modifications to our Epson XP800 scanner/printer this afternoon so it would not use so much expensive ink.

Rik

I can safely say i know how you feel, this is art.

Michael W

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Nice one Rik. Did you throw any bits out?

Little story, many years ago, nearer 40 than 35, I had a Tamiya remote control Panther tank, in 1:35 operated by a remote battery box on the ends of wires. I always wanted to convert it to radio control. There used to be a single-motor version as well.

A couple of weeks ago I found what appeared to be the same kit, but being sold as a static model, I bought it and to my delight, yes it clearly was the same mouldings as the working model with a few extra bits to replace the missing drivetrain. I knew the battered remains of the bodyshell were in my dad's loft. Today I went through loads of boxes, finding my kit dinosaurs, aircraft, tanks etc.etc. as well as speakers, amplifiers, shell collection and all sorts of bits and pieces. Finally in the far depths I found the battery box with its two levers and some incredibly corroded EVER READY batteries. I pulled on the wire and from the depths the dual motor/gearbox assembly appeared! Unlike the battery box, in pretty good looking condition.

So now I have another project ready for the dark depths of winter!

[Anonymous]

In the past I've shown what I did today, and yesterday, or even the day before that. Rather than clutter up the thread on PCB soldering I'm now going to show what I'll be doing tomorrow.

I will be building an IR lamp driver, and thermopile amplifiers, using the dead bug technique, starting with these transistors:

The device is 2mm square. A bright light and magnifier will be required!

Andrew

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

You need a rework gun.

Just tin the pads, add a tiny touch on non-corrosive flux, sit in place and blow hot air at it

Neil

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 16/11/2016 21:15:07:

You need a rework gun.

Just tin the pads, add a tiny touch on non-corrosive flux, sit in place and blow hot air at it

Neil

Good suggestion, or it would be if dead bug PCBs existed.

Ian P

[Anonymous]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 16/11/2016 21:15:07:

………….. and blow hot air at it

But if I do that I'll never see the components again. That's the trouble with surface mount components these days, one sneeze and you have to re-order, as you'll never find them. On the PCB I'll be using 0402 resistors, been a while since I last used them. They're about as small as I'd want to go for hand soldering, but fortunately the boards will be auto assembled with a pick 'n' place machine.

Andrew

PS: That's why I'm building a big engine, it's the perfect antidote to all these darn tiddly widdly components.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

This is why I gave up electronics, the bits got smaller and smaller and then disappeared altogether.

Wasn't Thermopile a battle in the Trojan wars?

Dave

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

"Nice one Rik, did you throw any bits out?"

Neil – I kept all the gears, motors , springs and most importantly, steel guide rods but would you believe, I found that what should have been the best bit – the nice steel guide rod in the scanner – was made from plastic and now forms part of the case. Absolute cheapskates! I was gutted – but not as gutted as the printer

Rik

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by mark smith 20 on 16/11/2016 18:44:26:

Hopper ,that looks very nice. What size chuck is on there to give me an idea of scale?

If i was thinking of making something alongst similar lines only scaled up slightly ,would i need to scale up everything or just the casting and spindle?

Also as i havent done any welding for 30 years ,can a cheap stick welder be used to fabricate the main body,i.e like the ones you often see on offer in Aldi and Lidl? Or are they not powerful enough.

Thanks

Hi Mark, it is an 80mm lathe chuck. Probably a bit big for the job, with more overhang than I'd really like to see. I will probably end up getting one of those 65mm watchmaker type chucks for it. They do not overhang so far. In practice, the head is set up for homemade collet and stub mandrel use and I think that will be the main way I will use it. You can see in the previous post that when I cut the small wormwheel, it was mounted on a mandrel, sans chuck.

If you look about two posts earlier, there are some other pics including one with a 0-1" micrometer in front to give a sense of scale. Yes I think you could scale it up, or down, to suit your needs. Scaling up bigger would just be a matter of making the body a bit higher and longer. Spindle diameter standard is just over one inch so could remain the same, or you could make it bigger if you like. The indexing gears and worms etc etc could all stay the same size. All they do is rotate the spindle under zero load so no need to beef them up for a bigger unit.

I have a small worm and wheel out of an aircraft gyroscope so have plans to make a half-scale version, one day….

Not sure about Aldi welders, we don't have them here in Oz. You would need at least, minimum, 100 amp capacity, preferably more. ISTR I ran my welder flat out at 140 amps with 3.2mm 6013 rods when I did mine. Beveled all the edges and made two passes. But a smaller welder wouild do the job, you just bevel the join, lay down a root weld using a high-penetration rod (7000 series) then make multiple passes over top of it to fill the bevel. The forces on the welds in operation on the milling machine will not be great enough to break any kind of properly done weld, I am sure. I did heat the whole thing up to cherry red with a propane torch after welding and buried it in a bucket of lime to cool off slowly overnight to anneal and stress relieve the welding.

 

Edited By Hopper on 16/11/2016 23:29:51

[Roger HeadParticipant @rogerhead16992]

Posted by Andrew Johnston on 16/11/2016 20:30:36:

I will be building an IR lamp driver, and thermopile amplifiers, using the dead bug technique, starting with these transistors:

Dead-bug is ok as long as you're not dissipating any significant power (tens of milliwatts). Those little chip transistors are heavily dependent on the collector (drain) pad and pcb track for heat dissipation.

Roger

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

I did something like that, Andrew, with high output LEDs. The challenge was two fold. The big pad needed to be soldered to something which was a good headsink (I used some brass strip). For that I needed my (much) older and lower power soldering iron which was a big chunk of copper so had enough capacity to heat the brass and a tiny bitted thermostatic iron which was small enough to touch on the pads.

There was no PCB for this, so the power was delivered through wires which, if mis-soldered or stressed too much would pull off the pads and require the whole thing to be re-done. I had 3 LEDs on a brass strip.

Iain

[Author]

Posts