2016 POTD Thread Archive

[intjonmiller]

That can of beans may be a bit hard on the teeth. Nice, what size barrel and what fuel. I need to build a new one and need ideas. Looking for dual purpose, Melting metals and heating steel.

35 gallon, lined with 2" of rock wool insulation, then a layer of fire clay (for kilns, from a pottery supply place) just kind of slapped on with a garden variety hand shovel, and lined with a layer of 18 gauge steel. The sheet metal was basically just to hold the fire clay in place until it got fired. It will break down eventually.

The blower is a bathroom exhaust fan that had been new in box in my mother's shed for about a decade. I swiped it while helping her clean up. It is funneled into the original bung hole in the barrel.

You'll want propane or natural gas for steel. At the very least good charcoal. I'm burning wood scraps because I am always producing them and because I don't have any plans to melt anything hotter than copper (just shy of 2,000 degrees F). The steel crucible (A36 mild steel 5" tubing with flat bar welded on the bottom, plus some scraps welded on for lifting and pouring) gets BRIGHT red hot with the cyclone of air moving across the wood, so I don't doubt I can get it hot enough for copper. If there is any issue I can modify the lid with insulation and a vent to get it a bit hotter. But I'm sure I couldn't get it hot enough to melt steel without a more refined fuel.

My wife is the biggest pyro I've ever met, so she loves it when it's time to melt. She helps me feed both wood and aluminum.

 

[kvt]

Yea, my little one made out of a propane cylinder just is not big enough to melt for a good pour. But it would get hot, Alum, Brass, Copper and it melted a hole in the side of my crucible which was a cast iron pot.

 

[uncle harry]

Looks like visibility in the "shop" should be much improved. I can commiserate on the back pain. I was helping a friend put up some t-111 siding and took an 8' swan dive (more like ugly duckling) from a ladder when the bottom kicked out and landed flat on my back on volcanic rock. Took about 10 minutes to start breathing normally. Mike

That would probably kill me ! Take care Mike & See Ya !

 

[zmotorsports]

Mark, the stand is working great. No shimmy or shake now due to the stiffer stand but there is still some vibration at certain hz settings. I am pretty sure it is related to the pulley or belt but it's minimal enough to ignore so I am. Sometime I would like to try a flat or ribbed belt, that would be a good project making the pulleys, but not on the "must do" list. I do need to talk to you about adding one of your electronic stop setups. I assume it would require me to add some components to the electrical box but it looks like it is a fantastic addition to the lathe. Another comment I have is how wonderful it is to have a DRO on the lathe. That was well worth the extra cost and I would highly recommend it to any user. I also would like to give credit to Matt at PM for working on adding the cast base option. It shows that he is committed to supporting and improving the equipment he sells.

Thanks for the feedback on your stand Dan. It is slowly moving up on my "to do" list now that I am finally getting caught up on coach mods/repairs for the upcoming RVing season.

I am not unhappy with the way my lathe performs, but I am in great need of more storage space. That is the main driver for me wanting to copy your stand and if it ends up being a bit more stable, then a two-fer.

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

I picked up this 16" Doall and got it in the shop today. Photobucket is not cooperating and wont rotate the photo.

Nice score. I looked for nearly a year for a DoAll locally but never did see one so I ended up purchasing my Birmingham which is basically a DoAll knock-off and have been extremely happy with it. About a month ago I did see a 14" DoAll for sale at the local University and it looked to be in great condition, waffled on purchasing it and selling my Birmingham but I am so pleased with my Taiwanese bandsaw I didn't think it was worth the hassle. Who knows???

Mike.

 

[zmotorsports]

Last night I had a few minutes before calling it a night and heading in the house so I decided to throw my test bar back in my lathe and double check things. It has been a few months since I checked it and it is still dead nuts where it was then. Didn't want to mess with it as my plan is to build a new stand within the next month or two and will have to start all over then anyways. It is only off .0002" in about 10 inches so pretty damn accurate as is.

Mike.

 

[sanddan]

Thanks for the feedback on your stand Dan. It is slowly moving up on my "to do" list now that I am finally getting caught up on coach mods/repairs for the upcoming RVing season.

I am not unhappy with the way my lathe performs, but I am in great need of more storage space. That is the main driver for me wanting to copy your stand and if it ends up being a bit more stable, then a two-fer.

Mike.

Thanks Mike.

I'm very happy with how the stand came out, still haven't filled up all the drawers yet. Lots of storage there. I thought I would really want a door for the shelf area but haven't seen any swarf making it's way down there so far so I don't think I'll go there after all. I also don't think I'll need to anchor the stand to the floor so the extra tabs built into the feet won't be need after all.

 

[zmotorsports]

Thanks Mike.

I'm very happy with how the stand came out, still haven't filled up all the drawers yet. Lots of storage there. I thought I would really want a door for the shelf area but haven't seen any swarf making it's way down there so far so I don't think I'll go there after all. I also don't think I'll need to anchor the stand to the floor so the extra tabs built into the feet won't be need after all.

Thanks for the additional information Dan. I was wondering how I was going to construct the door and also I was planning on bolting it to the floor but even on my lighter stand I don't get any shaking during normal use. I did however, get one part shaking the lathe quite badly a few months ago, but it was an odd shaped block and I had it clamped onto my faceplate so it was nowhere near balanced. I may still bolt mine down for instances such as those that come up.

Mike.

 

[mksj]

Sometime I would like to try a flat or ribbed belt, that would be a good project making the pulleys, but not on the "must do" list.

Hey Dan,

Nice to see you got it worked out for the most part. I am not sure you can get a zero vibration machine, there are always vibration modes at specific RPMs with machines. I have always used the low speed pulley ration on the PM1340GT which limited the top spindle speed of 1200 RPM at 90Hz, recently did some changes and noticed more belt/motor movement when the pulley ratio was set for high speed. I just switched out the stock motor to an inverter/vector motor, after seeing the improvement on Firestoppers lathe when we did this. Inverter/Vector motors up to 5Hp usually can max out at 5000-6000RPM, and maintain full Hp to at least 2X their base speed. I am using a TENV, 1750RPM motor with a 145TC motor frame size. Had to do some machine modifications and cutoff the motor encoder shaft to get it to fit. With a 2.7" motor pulley driving the larger low speed pulley on the lathe, it is very smooth and tops out at ~1800RPM spindle speed at 120Hz. Having easy access to the higher speed now without changing pulleys, has made it much easier to do some finishing/polishing of parts on the machine. The Inverter/Vector motors give you a bit tighter speed and braking control. By going this route, and speeding up the motor, the actual Hp to the spindle is doubled, and the torque is the same as it was before when you calculate the belt and gear ratios being used.

Send me an email/PM on the P sensor, I am sure you can adapt something to your system with minimal effort.
Mark

 

[NCjeeper]

I finished my Wright rollers.