Flight of Fancy
I had a long hiatus (about four weeks paid time off) away from my regular employment, creating time to take a good long at the route I should be heading with my at-home workshop activities. What I do for the rest of my life should be something I really enjoy. I have been making small wax carvings by hand and machine.
I have come to a personal decision about my capabilities in creating precision miniature wax carvings. The results of my experiments have shown that even with my PN, I am capable of detailed hand carving but not in the speed and degree of accuracy that I would like to perform. I suppose that is because I have spent most of my life being very accurate with dimensions and machine tools and maybe six months wax carving by hand. Duh?
My plan at this point is that I am going to continue putting effort into perfecting my CAD/CAM creative effort but not abandoning the hand work. I have discovered both to be very enjoyable. To those of you who follow my “in the shop” ramblings about machines and machine software, you will see that machine carving will continue.
Everything I do in my CNC interests is scalable. That means the effort and skills to do small scale carvings are the same whether one inch high or twenty four inches high. The size of the tool bits and the machine just change.
I am totally blown away by what I can do with small machines and tiny milling bits. This is where I have spent most of my time and money. I presently have what I need as far as the machines capable of doing the detailed work. I will be writing a lot more about how they work and how… Continue reading
How to Cure a GAS Problem
I ran across an interesting read in a Photography blog called F/8 (f-stopeight.com) written by Olivier Duong. I had an immediate impression about his style of high contrast B&W photography. I think it is interesting but just not my bag. It works for him and that is all that matters. What I do like is what he has to SAY in his blog about photography and his case of GAS, and that is spot on.
His story is a line about Gear Acquisition Syndrome he acronyms to G.A.S. and having G.A.S. attacks. What he writes about is using “Self Talk” as a justification and it sure hit home with me. I experience self talk all the time, but I almost always talk myself out of the mistake.
I haven’t gone overboard on camera gear, but I easily could. I may be close to the addiction edge on machine tools, computers and other hobbies. In fact I see where what Oliver has to say reaches far beyond his world of photography to many other acquisition addictions.
I like that Oliver doesn’t knock gear acquisition per se, but only when it conflicts with his intention of becoming a great photographer. It’s a confession of a camera gear addict that has found a way back to sanity, like a recovering alcoholic.
His words ring true. GAS is an addiction and like all bad habits, can’t be erased, but they can be replaced with a different response. Go read what he has written. Ignore he is writing about camera gear. You may as I did, see a part of yourself.
I Cheated
Low work bench clamping puck.
No biggie. I just posted some machining I did over in my The Hobbyist Workshop website. It was a small part of the article in the WOOD section called Low Work Bench. Click on link for a look see. It is about the middle of the article.
Not really much of a project as far as machining, but I will be machining a bracket for a hand screw to push on the puck. What it is, is a screw clamp to lock the drawer type bench in a fixed position.
Taig Lathe Add
There are some clamping moves that are repeated many times while making a series of parts on the Taig Lathe. Taig uses hex head 10-32 screws to lock the carriage gib and also clamp the tailstock and sliding center bar. It becomes a chore after a while picking up the correct hex wrench and fitting it to the screw head to make adjustments.
I have seen many examples where micro-lathe owners make a set of SS ball handle 10-32 screws and bend them about 80 degrees to act like a L handle. They look fabulous but you have to get the bend in the correct position.
What I show here are some store bought adjustable 10-32 threaded handles. They do the same job as the homemade handles except the handle position is adjustable. That’s much better in my book. Not quite as pretty as the homemade but a little more functional.
I purchased these at McMaster-Carr, Part Numbers 6271K11, 6271K19 and 6271K65. Pick the size you want. I bought all three sizes. I used the 9/16 length on the carriage. This is not a through hole so it shouldn’t bottom against the body. It works fine as is but could be a bit shorter. (grind down)
Having Fun in a Micro Machine Shop
I currently sit on the edge between micro-machining and mini-machining (Proxxon PD400), owning and using both size ranges. For me, I am in the perfect fit with these options as (within reason) it is better to be a bit larger than you need in a machine than to push a small machine beyond its inherent limitations. But small micro-machines are totally capable when used properly.
I am well aware I am not the best micro machinist living on the block. I have seen some outstanding work produced on these tools and I know the time it takes to get to those levels of perfection. My honest excuse is I just don’t spend the time at this point to reach ultimate perfection, but I try to do my best for the time involved.
In micro machining, all the same moves are required as in making a big part. The touch and feel are a bit different but the level of fun and enjoyment of the work is in my opinion very much the same. A few big points of difference are the cost of materials and the working room and electrical power required.
Micro machining usually falls into the model making… Continue reading