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3D Printed Planetary Gears
I wanted to try and print some planetary gears to try and make my 4th axis work better.
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RepRap - 3D Printer
Here's my journey of building a Reprap 3d Printer. Took about two weeks to get to the point where I was printing and I am still tweaking things to get good prints but it's working well enough to share :)
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Homemade Bandsaw Bearing Guides
Here's how I made my own bandsaw bearing guides from aluminum tuping and regular skate bearings - for like $20 :)
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Homemade Power Drive
Using a Parallax Propeller Proto board and a Pololu Stepper Driver - I've built a home made power drive for my lathe / mill / drill - Check it out!
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Timing Pulleys
I am working on a project for my Enco Mill Drill Lathe - it's a Power Feed driven by a Parallax Propeller and EasyDriver - part of the project involves making some Timing Pulleys to hook it all up! So this post is about the Timing Pulleys! Check out some pictures and videos!
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Latest 4th Axis
I just realized that I've never uploaded anything about my latest 4th Axis that I've thrown together - so here are some pictures and a video about it!
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Published on 27 April 2011
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Well I've finally gotten to the point where I think I can share this one - I've been working on a new tilting furnace, not exactly a reverb furnace as I'm heating the metal directly - anyway, check out the article and let me know what you think :)
Propane Tank
I started with an old propane tank I found on the side of the road. First thing I did was hook up my burner to burn off any excess fuel that might have been in there - it didn't even light for a second so I was worried that it was either broke (and there was fuel in there) or that it was indeed empty. It felt empty, but I really couldn't be sure so I proceeded with extreme caution :)
I figured that I needed to get the valve off so I tried to unscrew it but it was stuck and would not budge so I cut it off by hand with a hack saw - I figured that the brass wouldn't spark anyway - especially at the slow speed of hand cutting - well I'm still here so there was no excitement :)
Once I got the valve off there was still some stuff inside the tank - looked like plastic so I just drilled it out to make some room for me to fill the tank with water. With the tank filled with water I then proceeded to cut off all the various parts with my angle grinder. For drawing the lind on the tank, I placed it on the floor with blocks of wood on each side I drew a straight line and then used a string to connect the lines over the curved part. probably not perfect but it's close enough (like I'm going to be able to cut a straight perfect line with my angle grinder anyway) :)
I didn't want to cut into the tank with it full of water with my electric angle grinder, so I emptied and refilled several times to make sure there was no propane left (which I don't see how there could have been but just to be sure). I then left it out to dry overnight - also to make sure there wasn't anything left in there! In the morning I did a spark test at the top hole to see if anything would light up, nothing so I knew I was good to go for cutting the tank. I have seen people do a spark test on a tank that HAD propane left in it and I knew it would not explode with the big hole at the top... YOUR mileage may vary so don't take my word or method for it - maybe I was lucky!
DON'T CUT INTO A PROPANE TANK UNLESS YOU KNOW FOR A FACT IT'S EMPTY! There I said it ;)
DON'T CUT INTO A PROPANE TANK UNLESS YOU KNOW FOR A FACT IT'S EMPTY! There I said it ;)
I cut the tank in two with my angle grinder with a metal cutting disc. Then I switched to a grinding disc and cleaned off the edges that were sharp. As I figured I did not follow the line very well in a few places and it's not perfect - but I don't care about perfect I care if it's functional and it works just fine.
Frame and Welding
Next I wanted to work on the frame for the furnace - I wasn't sure of exact dimensions so I kinda built the frame around the tank. Turns out that wasn't very good idea and I had to break a few welds and re do them - I *should* have worked things out in Solidworks first but once I get going I hate to stop.. In the end it all works, but better planning would have made it a little smoother.
For the frame I used what I had on hand, which was some angle iron and some square iron pieces. I cut the angle iron about 3" from the end on one side and put it in the old furnace to heat it up red hot so I could flatten it for the "hinge" - now I think I'm a blacksmith? LOL no - not really but it was cool hammering on the red hot steel :)
So basically I kept welding and fitting things together until I got something that was working. I am posting pictures of my horrible welding skills as well, by the end I was getting a little better but I'm still not considering myself a "welder" - again - if it works then I don't care how it looks.
I welded on a hinge for the top, the spout at the front and on the top I welded on a pipe for me to put the burner in. The spout may change if it doesn't work so good, so far it's not been a problem but I'll have to see if it clogs and I can cut off the top of it if I need to.
Refractory Cement
Next was filling the tank base and top with the refractory cement. I made a mold for the cavity using a Tupperware container and some wood and duct tape - fancy, I know ;) I used a board to suspend the mold and also taped a pvc pipe to the end of my burner pipe so no refractory would get in there.
Next I mixed up the refractory and poured it in - needless to say, you can see I was a little short! I was hoping that an inch wouldn't be that much of a factor.
Testing
In these next four pictures you can see me testing out the furnace a bit. I fired it up and melted a little aluminum. I took forever (compared to what I was used to) I was used to getting to molten aluminum in about 15 minutes in my old furnace and this took over 1/2 a hour and wasn't completely liquid. So I turned to the castinghobby Yahoo group and the guys there told me to try some ITC-100 and line the furnace with that - so I did
Final Adjustments
In these last pictures you can see a couple of the things I've done. #1 was to try and close up that inch or so of space - and for that I used some furnace cement from Ace hardware - I figure it's not going to see any "action" over there by the side and hopefully it'll insulate just a little bit. Also you can see the dull grey color of the ITC-100 that I "painted" all over everything.
Well that's it - hopefully I'll get around to making a video soon of it melting some metal and casting something - I will post it here if I do! Thanks for checking this out and as always if you have any comments or questions just shoot me an email!
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