Nice looking bit of kit there Peter
Bath or hydro bath for disabled?
I work in Hospital engineering these days and have seen very similar setups
Maybe you made them.
Nice looking bit of kit there Peter
Bath or hydro bath for disabled?
I work in Hospital engineering these days and have seen very similar setups
Maybe you made them.
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
I buy my nutserts from Rivnut Australia so what am I using???
I've used some that are 10mm OD but these ones are 9mm OD which I learnt the hard way with laser cut holes.. Mostly I use them with powdercoated parts and there is a bit of an art to choosing a hole size that allows for the powdercoat without needing a hammer.
I'd happily use them for linear rails but I'd like a recess that allowed the rail to sit flat on the frame, not on the nutsert.
How have you found the rails sit on the nutserts v's an accurate finish?
Rod Webster
www.vehiclemods.net.au
Hi Rod,
Thanks for dropping past.
I'm using flush finish nutserts. You just need a very small countersink at the top of the hole for them so the rail will be sitting on the steel not the nutsert.
If I need to epoxy level the surface they will be well below
Attachment 445902
For powdercoat finish I use to always put them in prior to powdercoat and either put sacrificial fixings into the thread or stuff the hole with balled up tape to keep the powder out.
only occasionally did I ever need to run a tap through to clean out a thread
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Hi Gully - it's a birthing bath. I have just redesigned it for use in residential care as well. Peter
Talking about welding , I want one of these.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...ature=emb_logo
Nah, It must be a taste thing, I used to send this part out to be lasercut and they powdercoated it after inserting the nustsert. But now I cut it on my plasma cutter out of waste from another job so its free now. I much prefer the look of a nice shiny unpainted nutsert. In fact I found one of the old style today and wondered if I could sell it!
I'll look for some of the flush mount ones. They sound handy.
Rod Webster
www.vehiclemods.net.au
I don't know what kind of shop equipment you have, but in one of the videos I posted, he's using a bridgeport mill, a fairly common thing, I don't know, you might have one?
Doesn't look like he's using the specialized bit holder either, just the bridgeport, and the flow drill bit?
One M5 or M6 bit costs around 35 to 50 USD on EBay including shipping. Might be worth the experiment to learn a new trick. Maybe not.
It's simple and it works.
Hi NIC 77
I must admit it looks a very cool method of putting holes in tube to give extra tapping material.
I sold a lot of my metal working equipment when I closed my business down around 8 years ago.Just the basics these days, It looks like it would still work OK with a good drill press though.
The tube I'm using had a slight convex to the walls so I ran the stock through my finish sander with a 40grit drum on it to remove most of the hump (poor mans version of precision surface grinding) so It's nominal 2.5+mm wall now
nutserts have been my go to threaded fixing for any stock 3mm thick or less for a long time because I find them to be a reliable anchor point. that plus I'm too lazy to tap out all those holes.
There will be plenty of parts requiring tapped threads later in the build.
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Peter
My wife is a nurse and worked as a midwife for many years before getting into teaching nursing at Uni
Showed her your tub. she thought it was brilliant.
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Yeh, I looked to. You need to make sure you have enough RPM by the look. I'm not sure if my little mill is fast enough at 1800 rpm https://f.nordiskemedier.dk/2lnj8im6qg3odipa.pdf
A M6 bit and tap would set you back about AUD $55 on AliExpress. See this supplier
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/173...49db1ba1bpBtTY
For a quick test you would not need the tool holder with heatsink and fan.
I'm tempted to try but I want to do ally which they say needs 50% more speed.
Rod Webster
www.vehiclemods.net.au
Just realized that I never posted the concept render of what the machine should look like completed (how rude)
Attachment 445984
The spindle can overhang the the front of the bed up to 70mm so I can edge machine parts and also put a small 4th axis there at some point in the distant future.
There is also a recess to place the 4th axis under the spoil board or to put deeper parts to clear the gantry or fit some sort of vacuum hold down system. So I have plenty of future options available
Actual cut area is around the 1050 x 1050+mm mark, so I'm selling it short calling it a 3x3
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Weekend tinkering has the gantry rough assembled
Attachment 445998
Will try to start on the end support mock ups next week end
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Hi Gully - Wheels and an apron - A classy design 5 stars. Peter
Not a lot to offer up this weekend
Cut out a pair of mock up gantry sides from 18mm MDF
Spent some quality time cutting up the thick walled aluminium C channel that make up the spacer between the inner and outer gantry side then drilling and tapping to suit
Forgot how long it takes to do all that stuff.
Can look forward to doing it all over again next weekend for the other end
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Managed to get a bit more done this weekend between house and garden maintenance.
Finished up any CAD adjustments and cutting out the mock up gantry sides. Also finished drilling and tapping out the aluminium channel spacers
I now have the gantry sitting nice and square on the sides, Even managed to jag proper alignment of the stepper shaft to the coupler without any adjusting.
Attachment 446796 Attachment 446798
As Chairman Dan is sending us all into tighter lock down as of tonight, chances of being able to get steel stock, fixings etc will be very limited (non existent?) for the next 6 weeks and beyond.
Will need to go through what stock I have in my workshop but should be able to finish up most of the gantry while us Vic's are sulking in the naughty corner.
Stay safe.
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Another cold and wet weekend in lock down.
This weekends task: Rough out the Z axis carriage set it up on the rails and have it running smoothly and square to the front of the x axis gantry along its length.
Attachment 446980 Attachment 446982 Attachment 446984
after a bit of tweaking it runs smooth and square from end to end both by hand and also driving the ball screw I'm sure some shimming will be needed during final set up, but as of now we are right in the ball park
Will spend the rest of my time today tidying up the extrusion ends and doing some CAD revisions.
Need to find and order some 8 or 12mm thick aluminum off ebay that's big enough to cut the front plate out of.
Stay safe,
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Back at it again today.
This lock down weekends task: Manufacture a working Z axis
Have not been able to source any 8 or 10mm aluminium stock in a suitable size which is a pain, so it will have to wait till I can get out and about.
To keep things moving I machined temporary mock up parts from 8mm phenolic board
All went together nice and square with no binding so I'm a happy camper today.
Attachment 447214 Attachment 447218 Attachment 447216
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
Hi Gully - What is the phenolic board? and where did you get it? cheers Peter
Hi Peter
Solid Phenolic Compact (SPC), commonly referred to simply as phenolic resin table top, is one of the most durable surfaces for heavy-duty lab workbenches and casework countertops.
The phenolic board I'm using started out life as the end panel on a hospital bed
Its like a very thick and stiff laminate made up of an impregnated paper or glass film of some sort.
Several of them were getting binned at work so waste not want not I say.
Gully
Striving for medeocrity..and achieving high scores!
That's a good reminder, I need to find myself some phenolic. This is also referred to as garolite? I'm not an expert on it. I know I can get it on eBay. I thought it normally came in red or green?
I know it can be used as the bed on a 3d printer for printing nylon without heating the bed.
For example, the very expensive markforged mark 2 printer does not have a heated bed. I believe it just uses a sheet of phenolic as the print surface.
Beyond that, I have no idea what the structural properties are, but it would be interesting to learn more about it.
This company has always had good data sheets on plastics - Peter
https://www.professionalplastics.com...oven%20fabrics.