[mountaindew]

Pickled
Thanks for comments and insight "well said"
I get frustrated when I see people focus on bugs, errors, feeds, speeds, wont do this or its bad software.
What I do can be done in most of these cad and cam systems with learning, practice and process.
As I noted above I see other people that have been cranking mechanical designs 8 hours a day as a job!
Would be hard to gain that experience. what I refer to in another thread about the 10,000 hours to master a skill.

md

[mountaindew]

Very nice work.

I agree with Steve though. Most jobs don't require "fancy" things, or much effort to do. Many people spend 3 hours drawing a part when I could have the part in your hand in 20min. I think there is a reverse lesson here (if that makes sense) If the part is a 2.5D part, then draw it in 2D and do the .5 D in CAM. No need to draw 3D models for alot of parts.

Thank you very much!
The stuff you and others make helped inspired me to toss out the tv and pick up books and net learning.
Anyway drawing stuff is cool and fun for some people "goofy ones like me"
And I must say they look cool rendered and all pretty on screen.

Boring!!!!!! Now that I can make them, Off the scale cool!

And to be clear and I know this is no special skill imho and why I focus on cam side

Attachment 245924

The difference in time between the 2d on right and 3d on left ?
Because this is detailed with chamfers and all kinds of pockets and stuff! 30 minutes max!
If I have been drawing for a few hours that day I could go from that 2d to 3d in less then 10 min.
md

[Steve Seebold]

Thank you very much!
The stuff you and others make helped inspired me to toss out the tv and pick up books and net learning.
Anyway drawing stuff is cool and fun for some people "goofy ones like me"
And I must say they look cool rendered and all pretty on screen.

Boring!!!!!! Now that I can make them, Off the scale cool!

And to be clear and I know this is no special skill imho and why I focus on cam side

Attachment 245924

The difference in time between the 2d on right and 3d on left ?
Because this is detailed with chamfers and all kinds of pockets and stuff! 30 minutes max!
If I have been drawing for a few hours that day I could go from that 2d to 3d in less then 10 min.
md

I do everything in 3D for a few reasons.

1, I'm 70 years old and I'm supposed to be retired so I have nothing better to do.

2, Alzheimer’s runs in my family so I do it to keep what little brain I have left sharp.

3. I can't stand to just sit in on my butt in front of the TV all day every day.

I watched my dad after he retired. He was 76 when he finally pulled the plug. After that, he just sat in his chair and waited to die. He was 91 when he finally got his wish last December.

[mountaindew]

Well said steve
Sorry about your dad!
I have one only a couple years younger.
He tries to work in his shop mostly turns bowls and stuff on lathe.
Does much of his work by feel I think "he cant see detail!" me too
He also inspire me
md


About net learning
you can almost find 1 to 1000 videos to do anything from tension compression taping to non linier equations in fluid dynamics "mit"

[BAMCNC.COM]

Yep, I watch 1hr of TV every night before bed, but it's YouTube on my TV. Gotta get my Oxtoolco, Abom79, NYCCNC, etc in before bed time Haven't even seen any TV shows in 2 years, which sucks because it's hard to hold a conversation with some people.

Jim "Hey did you see what happened on madmen?"
Me "uhh... what is madmen?"

lol

MTD - You make Sprut look like a great program, and your posts are always fun to look at since you always add pictures

As for the 2D 3D thing... well you let the CAM do the 3D in the simulation, it's how I made my Bottle Grenade, and knew what it would look like.

[mountaindew]

Yep, I watch 1hr of TV every night before bed, but it's YouTube on my TV. Gotta get my Oxtoolco, Abom79, NYCCNC, etc in before bed time Haven't even seen any TV shows in 2 years, which sucks because it's hard to hold a conversation with some people.

Jim "Hey did you see what happened on madmen?"
Me "uhh... what is madmen?"

lol

MTD - You make Sprut look like a great program, and your posts are always fun to look at since you always add pictures

As for the 2D 3D thing... well you let the CAM do the 3D in the simulation, it's how I made my Bottle Grenade, and knew what it would look like.

Lipton got my attention one day about a year ago. I was surfing videos and he was doing some lathe work with pink Floyd on radio in background.
Im like ok I can watch this. Then over time I noticed he writes columns and a book and now like you and others has fans and friends all over the world.
md

[mountaindew]

I think someone reads and looks at this stuff and is inspired.

I read MAKE web site pages now and then!
Reading this article published on the 18th left me thinking I wrote part of it!

Called "how failing fast helps"
They even referenced my 10,000 hour mark I wrote in a post above
Anyway fun to see and we think about the same things

MD

[BAMCNC.COM]

I found Tom about a year ago aswell, I even sent him a package... oh.. atleast 6-8 months ago, and he picked his wife's tool box with one item I sent him, it was a pretty funny episode You can see my sticker on his bulletin board, same for most people you and I would like to watch. Packing up one for Shadon HKW right now, trading some of his famous Z-Squares for a Pen

[mountaindew]

I found Tom about a year ago aswell, I even sent him a package... oh.. atleast 6-8 months ago, and he picked his wife's tool box with one item I sent him, it was a pretty funny episode You can see my sticker on his bulletin board, same for most people you and I would like to watch. Packing up one for Shadon HKW right now, trading some of his famous Z-Squares for a Pen

Great example of someone I would consider to qualify as a master and has developed their skills over most of their life in varied settings. Watching him weld or even approach a welding task makes me think this guy must have welded the bay bridge piles as a side job or trained the people that did.
I also see the same skill in a guy on the other coast. Watching him do almost anything makes me think this guy must have outfitted submarines from a floating machinist barge for 20 years.

Looking at their workspaces even reflects this a little. one "wide open and inspiring" the other "tight and efficient"
I learned about this at LASD "Lane Allen School of Design"
md

[mountaindew]

My first leveraged design! "well one I can hold in my hand anyway"

Some of the previous posts I described how I draw / model and then move to cam models for fast parts or prototypes.
Doing this has added benefits as I noted before. After you draw something you don't have to draw it again.
Also has the benefit of what I would call leveraged design. In this case there are a few common flange plates and other parts.
I can now combine these modular parts in new and different ways by designing and adding just a few new parts.
Having the new parts based on previous design. its not a huge step to move to cam and finished part or assembly in this case.

A modular design with parametric ability.
Attachment 247278

No fun unless you can build and use.

Attachment 247280

Leverage the design

Attachment 247282

No fun unless you can build and use "well test this monument"

Attachment 247284

In fact most everything is a leveraged design! cars, firearms and bottle openers all come to mind.

Now all this learning is starting to pay off!
Drawing, cam software and tool operation and use........
I estimate another 7 years or so and I will be good at this looking at work done by others on lathes, grinders ........
Keep me out of trouble anyway


md

[tbaker2500]

Awesome work, my man. I love to see what you keep coming up with!

[mountaindew]

Awesome work, my man. I love to see what you keep coming up with!

Thanks again so much!
I enjoy sharing some of the stuff I learn and build.
Doing a shop remodel of sorts. I moved air compressor outside shop a while back to limit noise.
The next big offender on my list was shop dust collector. I moved it to an enclosure for sound control and piped a few dust vac ports along the wall in shop.
Getting ready to add 1 vacuum port and stop gate to tormach mill chip guard for easy hose hook up and cleaning of machine.
Down the road I expect to have full mill enclosure for better shop air quality control " I want to do exotic stuff like carbon fiber and honey comb composites"
In short shop dust control is going to be important.
Also added another dedicated machine location including power, compressed air and vacuum connections. This will be handy for new machine in future and I wont have to tear shop apart to add it.

oh and the very awesome remote control keychain button to turn dust collector on and off. found a 1200w 110v unit for 9$ on amazon "I rate this tool in top 10 coolest newest additions to shop and cheapest"

Of course setting up more tools and associated cam operations to use them as shown below

My first arbor saw and projects that I can use it on
I set up some tests and posted on sprut thread how I used 2d contour to generate all the paths and code.
Some of this was a challenge to figure out "no books or much reference to follow"

Attachment 249400

Getting the tool definition right being the hardest part by far for me! That section of sputcam is hard to deal with still.
Figure I will have decent experience on how it works before I get to what looks like a more complicated lathe tools and a more complete program.
And of course a lathe to run the code on.
md

[mountaindew]

This was nice set of tools and operations to add to the tool box.
And no fun unless you can make the part and test your methods.

Attachment 249616
md

[mountaindew]

I noticed I lost 3 of my wheel medallions this summer.
A little distraction for fun!

My first auto part

Draw it
Attachment 251168

Cam it
Attachment 251170

Mill it
Attachment 251172

Fit it
Attachment 251174

oops! I popped it in and now I have to take wheel off to get it back out!

Attachment 251176

Made a few more out of different materials, decide what I liked installed them and on to next project !
Lots of fun!

[Steve Seebold]

I noticed I lost 3 of my wheel medallions this summer.
A little distraction for fun!

My first auto part

Draw it
Attachment 251168

Cam it
Attachment 251170

Mill it
Attachment 251172

Fit it
Attachment 251174

oops! I popped it in and now I have to take wheel off to get it back out!

Attachment 251176

Made a few more out of different materials, decide what I liked installed them and on to next project !
Lots of fun!

I keep telling you these are great machines. Mine was 3 years old in July this year, and I like it as much today as I did when I first got it. The ONLY thing I wish it had would be more horsepower. Three horsepower would be really cool.

[mountaindew]

Couple more months for the 1 year mark .
I enjoy using the system a great deal.
Works and performs far better then I could have imagined.
I get excellent results with little experience.
Researching about this tool system I wondered about problems.
Took a guess and figured it was like driving a jeep off road in Colorado.
If done right little or no damage or problems if done wrong all kinds of damage and problems can occur.
So far this has proven correct!
To date I have broke 1 drill bit "incorrect height set", 1 hamier probe tip "phone call", 2 taps "1 collet not tight" "1 no tap lube"
I have also dulled 1 drill bit because it rubbed an edge on a vise parallel " I had cut and prepped the stock a little undersize" causing the dill operation to be to close to edge!
Oh and nicked or scratched the one parallel.

I enjoy using it enough to change things like air compressor and shop vac "noise makers" locations to reduce or eliminate the noise and provide a comfortable, clean and safe work area.
These two things have turned out to be priceless changes.
my latest mod shown below
I added a slide gate and dust vac port to one side of mill base. I can use this for control of dusty mill operations or clean machine at end of day.
Attachment 251654
I also have a bucket and cyclone separator to put on "not shown in picture"
md


.

[mountaindew]

Getting ready to move into the 4th dimension!

Attachment 251966

Some complex tombstone action! I also have a couple other fun normal 4th axis setups with collets and or chucks.
I don't have the tools yet mostly because I cant decide what to order!
And I have no idea how much of this will posts out to good g-code "post processor" among other things will influence this.
It simulates and looks so cool!
md

[BAMCNC.COM]

wow very cool, eventually I'll get a 4th. I seem to remember something about a 4th and the ATC but can't remember - anything I should know?

[CadRhino]

If you plan on getting or have the ATC, get the right side mounted (adjustable) rotary table. You can use the standard rotary table but you will need to mill off the attachment flanges on the top so long tools don't hit them.
I got this one to go with my ATC 8" Tilting Motorized Rotary Tables
It's heavy.
-Nathan

wow very cool, eventually I'll get a 4th. I seem to remember something about a 4th and the ATC but can't remember - anything I should know?

[CadRhino]

Very nice looking simulation, MD.

Getting ready to move into the 4th dimension!

Attachment 251966

Some complex tombstone action! I also have a couple other fun normal 4th axis setups with collets and or chucks.
I don't have the tools yet mostly because I cant decide what to order!
And I have no idea how much of this will posts out to good g-code "post processor" among other things will influence this.
It simulates and looks so cool!
md