2014 POTD Thread Archive

[bedwards]

This is my first project that I have done for pay and the first one I have done from a customer supplied drawing. I'm not sure what it is or is for, but I think it is to connect 2 cables. The finished pieces are shorter than in drawing by customers request. The center hole is 6mm bored through the piece.

bedwards

 

[NoShopSkills]

...a simple turning and milling project. An egronomic dimensioned, lightweight, bored out 6061 handle for the GoPro. Nick Woodman (inventor of the GoPro) may never have intended it to ever be used as a handheld camera. Although I still occasionally mount it to a motor vehicle from time to time, my days of bungie jumping, HALO parachuting and wingsuit jumping are likely behind me, so I wanted to be able to just grab it like any other camera.

I like it around the shop and house for everything from documenting rare machining and welding successes, making videos that help with Ebay auctions and taking the occasional photo of the dog to email to the wife as a distraction when she's supposed to be working.



The interesting thing for me about this little piece is that I had a realization while struggling with symmetry and finish and I wasn't working to any blue prints or design tolerances (with the exception of the mount that had to inversely match the plastic camera housing).

As consumers, we've become accustomed to perfectly symmetrical, straight, imperfection free, mass produced items. So to accept something machine made with even the slightest flaw takes a bit of a mindset change. It also puts a spot light on those great machinists from the 1940s through the 1970s who, before CNC and CAD, turned out tons of consumer goods with precision that further highlights my imperfections.

 

[mgalusha]

As consumers, we've become accustomed to perfectly symmetrical, straight, imperfection free, mass produced items. So to accept something machine made with even the slightest flaw takes a bit of a mindset change. It also puts a spot light on those great machinists from the 1940s through the 1970s who, before CNC and CAD, turned out tons of consumer goods with precision that further highlights my imperfections.

I think it turned out just fine. I find I'm my own worst critic, I know where the flaws reside in whatever I've made/repaired/modified and over the years have finally, more or less, become OK with that and not let them eat at me. I used to be wound way too tight about trying to get everything exactly right, not so much any more. I shoot for spot on but have adjusted my tolerances over the years, now things are a bit looser than they were before.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

here's what I managed to do yesterday

break a carbide end mill on both ends. Have now tattooed "must use HSS" on my forehead to remind me on the rare occasions when I look in a mirror



made this castle nut tool for my bike (what I broke the end mill on)



and here's my new press plates made from a piece of steel given to me by HSM member mikem

 

[mattthemuppet2]

that further highlights my imperfections.

erm, I had a good solid look and couldn't find any imperfections? If you have to point them out, they're not imperfections Or if they are, they become design features!

man, I'd love to have some of your imperfections, they'd make my projects look so much better

 

[Rapscallion]

This is my first project that I have done for pay and the first one I have done from a customer supplied drawing. I'm not sure what it is or is for, but I think it is to connect 2 cables. The finished pieces are shorter than in drawing by customers request. The center hole is 6mm bored through the piece.

bedwards

Congrats on your first paid job (may there be many more).
Did you cut the 6mm bores at the split with a ballnose while the pieces where apart?

 

[Rapscallion]

here's what I managed to do yesterday

break a carbide end mill on both ends. Have now tattooed "must use HSS" on my forehead to remind me on the rare occasions when I look in a mirror



made this castle nut tool for my bike (what I broke the end mill on)



and here's my new press plates made from a piece of steel given to me by HSM member mikem

I'm pretty sure it's the thin walls on the castle nut that gave the carbide cutter a type of interrupted cut that caused it to break the way it did. HSS in many cases holds out better than carbide on interrupted cuts because it absorbs impact better.
I suspect you might know this and hence the desire for a tattoo.) Anyway you got what you want in the end so at least it's something.

 

[Jimmy]

Cold saw

I'm trying to build a cold saw out of parts I had sitting around in the shop. Still need to rig up a switch, guard, and coolant.

Any suggestions?

 

[Rapscallion]

Finished assembling the gearbox on that Colchester Triumph that I'm repairing Got the drive pulley and belts back on and set the matrix clutch pressure. Time flies when you're having fun.


All gears in position.


Pulley on and clutch going in.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

I'm pretty sure it's the thin walls on the castle nut that gave the carbide cutter a type of interrupted cut that caused it to break the way it did. HSS in many cases holds out better than carbide on interrupted cuts because it absorbs impact better.
I suspect you might know this and hence the desire for a tattoo.) Anyway you got what you want in the end so at least it's something.

funnily enough it was milling the slot on the side that did it. Major damage was done by me feeding it into the cut too quickly, 2nd one was either a chip getting caught or the work shifting slightly. Either way, I gave him 3 HSS end mills as replacements, so it'll be HSS in the future either way