Cincinnati Shaper

[dallen]

Looks great, did it machine well, do you think? Have you changed the alloys you add to the melt?

so far its cutting ok, the alloy was mostly a bearing housing that I cut up without adding in any of the stuff that I have already melted, I think what did the trick was just getting the stuff hot enough that it ran like water. I did add in about a 1/4 of a pill that I got off of someone that had some stuff on Evil Bay ( pills are like .5 diameter and about a half inch long, one pill is suppose to fix a 125 pounds of molten metal) not sure if it helped or not just know the casting looks great and is machinable unlike the one yesterday that failed to fill completely.

The other thing that I did was to dust the pattern with Sea Coal that I got from ID over on AA, he mixed the stuff into his sand but he's using greensand, and mines homemade oil bonded sand.

one thing I'm going to do is to put on a bigger fuel line, step up to 3/8 or 1/2 inch so I can get more head pressure against the nozzle, the heated fuel tank helps I can get the oil up to around 120 degrees and keep it there, and now that I have the sight glass on the tank I can tell how much oil I use, today took about a gallon.
Plus I have a cordless leaf blower that I need to figure out if I can run it off of a Variac or 18 volts AC which will give me a lot more air.

I've been working on the router, think I have most of the major stuff on order or already here. which will be a great help in making patterns if I can figure out how to work the router, and somewhere along the way I ended up with a copy of SolidWorks and have been trying to learn how to do basic stuff.

But now I have a new clamp handle pattern that I need to get on some board so I can cast it. spring is have and my work load is already running over the brim.
DA

[dallen]

did some machine work in the leadscrew support today

[mite5255]

Looking good Dave

[dallen]

can't do anything with the casting today due to rain and the shaper is outside, so I been working on the router I'm trying to build. Here's a shot of where I'm at with the frame.

I have the piece for the end that doesn't have anything on it, but it needs to be cut to length and I have to make some brackets before I can put it on.

DA

[dallen]

did some work on the part for the shaper today, I'm going to have to either rework the ratchet, which is really too hard to machine, OR cast a new one with a thinner section where the ratchet pin is at.

Got in some work on the Router, drilled a plate to mount all the electrical stuff on, now to find a box to stuff it in.

DA

[dallen]

wasn't able to get much done yesterday, but was able to scrounge up a computer that works and has a small form factor motherboard in it to run the router with. I'm hoping to put all the computer stuff in the same box along with the stepper stuff, that way I'll only have one box to deal with when moving the thing around.

Did get some cable connectors, and limit switches ordered up from china.

Today I fired up the computer to see if it would actually work, (been sitting in a 40' Trailer since the dude closed out his computer shop) I had to reset the date/time in the Bios and it booted up, so I guess were in business on that account, I already had a small flat screen monitor, keyboard, and Rat laying around the house.

Also received in the mail the bearings for the Y Axis, now if I only had the aluminum plate to make the gantry end plates out of, may try to cast them I have a chunk of .5 Birch Plywood that I could make a pattern out of.

I still have some work to do on the leadscrew support part that I casted the other day out of Cast Iron, but I'm pretty close to bolting it on the shaper. Weathers cold and windy today.

DA.

[dallen]

received these in the mail today.

[mite5255]

You would have a ball were I work Dave, they throw out all sorts of goodies, from electrical components to very handy lengths of steel

[dallen]

freebies are always nice, but they are on the short side around here. Been looking for a through hole stepper motor for the Z Axis but can't find one that uses a ball screw in the Nema 23 size range. It would solve some height problems I may have, anyway will have to keep looking.

DA

[dallen]

Made these today, their not very pretty, what with the sand being cold as all get out when I started and not wanting to stick together, then having my blower for the burner take a crap on me in the middle of the second melt, I think they will work just fine. Anyway its one step closer to having a cnc router and I didn't have to buy some aluminum plate that may have to be changed if half inch isn't thick enough.

DA