HAFCO AL360 Metal Lathe

Added a metal lathe to my tool collection. 

Fitted a digital readout

Have a go at some O-ring grooves and surface finishes on Aluminium.

Making some simple aluminium adaptors.

Turning down some A-size Vee belt pulleys to accept a B-size belt for the motor upgrade and VFD installation into the lathe.

Having a go a some pipe trimming and weld prep.

Jumping on the TIG welder for the first time in a while.

Making a small ball mill to be used in the lathe for crushing clay to make green sand for casting aluminium.

New Titan TM20LV Milling Machine

 Picked up a new toy recently.  A Titan TM20LV bench top milling machine.  Brand new, without spindle motor or control box.  Which is perfect for a CNC conversion.  watch this space for more.

 3D modelled in Autodesk Fusion360 to design bearing blocks and ballscrew mounts.

General Updates

Following the success of the rudder mould.  I thought I'ld have a crack at a making some spreader moulds as well.  These are made from some 15mm thick HPDE I had laying around.  The idea is the perform a closed moulding with an inflatable bladder (long party balloon) with carbon fibre and epoxy.  It appears some RC airplane DIY builds have success with this method for fuselages.

This is a simple sign for a friends business to hang on their wall.

The machine is now cutting 6mm thick aluminium plate in 0.5mm DOC, 24k RPM at 1200 mm/min with  a 1/8" single flute solid carbide cutter.

The parts below are to upgrade the Y & Z axis of the router to accommodate HIWIN linear rails and bearings.  The brackets and Z-axis beam will also be a lot stiffer than the existing 20mm thick aluminium plate.

The goal here is to improve machine rigidity to allow larger depths of cuts for faster production times. 

 

Making things

Made a subwoofer box for a mates car.

Playing with toolpaths for a desired surface apperance

Made a set of drill bit holders for the workshop.

The moulds have been sanded back with wet and dry then polished and waxed.

Foam cores have been machined with western red cedar stringers and 80kg/m^3 foam either side.

Test fitting in the moulds.

 

Machined a lid for new vacuum chamber / resin trap i welded up.

New vacuum pot with valve ready to use on the rudder blades.

Had a crack at some moulds for carbon fibre rudders this weekend.  Finally getting a chance to use he machine for what I originally designed it to do.

Started out with two laminated sheets of 16mm MDF (32mm total)

Roughing pass with a 12.7mm straight flute router bit,

Then in with the 12mm ball mill.

Second half we just went straight in with the 12mm ball mill

We sanded and painted the mounds with epoxy and machined then again to the same profile the following day.

This finishing pass was 1.5mm step over with a 12mm ball mill at 45deg.

The moulds now require a hand sand and polish to bring them up to a good finish.  The section is a NACA63012A

New Desk

Its hard to do design work when you don't have a decent sized desk.  So why not make one? I was thinking of something with plenty of storage and is inspired by engineering concepts.