Gallery, Projects and General > Project Logs
Modified Rocking Engine
bogstandard:
Nick,
As you know, gloves are a definite no-no when working on moving machinery, but for picking up swarf they are a must. I use the very thin woven cloth ones that have like a layer of some rubbery solution on the fingers and palms.
I usually use a small rake when moving curly swarf about, and for brass needles it is the vacuum that is the only safe way, NOT by blowing it away with an airline. That is like sewing a mini skin minefield all over your shop and machinery.
I don't think you will ever get over the skin penetration problem of brass, in fact I got one the other evening on an inside thumb joint, but didn't notice it because it was so small. The next morning when I woke up, it was all pain and puss which required microscopic surgery on my part. I have just felt something in the bottom of my foot, so I will get the wife to do the necessary on that.
A good barrier cream does help in keeping the instant infection down, but as you can see, it still got me.
I suppose surgical gloves would be OK, but from experience, any more than half an hour is too long for me, even though you don't realise it, your hands sweat profusely, and they soon become very uncomfortable. I tend to use the blue vinyl ones rather than latex, I find them much stronger and able to cope better with the rigours of the workshop.
John
NickG:
Thanks John,
The one on the thumb joint sounds painful!
I've tried surgical gloves but find they tear pretty easily with the sort of stuff we do. Although we use some green ones for work, can't remember what the material is called, they are a bit tougher, might try those. Keep your hands clean too. I still don't like wearing them really though, even though they are thin, you don't get the same dexterity.
Going to try to get in the shop every night this week as I'm away a 3 nights next week.
Will probably go for the frame next.
Nick
NickG:
Not a great deal to show tonight! Just some straight forward milling for the aluminium frame.
Can't remember whether I mentioned, when I moved into the new garage, er I mean house :wack: there were some shelves that needed to come down. The brackets were over a foot long and bend from 3/8" x 1 1/4" aluminium bar! Thought that would come in handy!
Anyway, I didn't actually know it was 1 1/4" wide until tonight, which was handy as that is how wide I designed my frame ... good guess!
Cut out a lump long enough for both parts so that i could machine it down to size, as I said, didn't need to touch the width, so just milled both ends square. I found I had to climb mill to get a decent finish, the alloy must be very soft and it was picking up all the swarf if I didn't climb mill.
The bar was slightly over 3/8" but didn't correlate to any particular metric size either! So took 60 thou off each side. The quill DRO was really handy here, wish I had a full proper dro on both machines, would be superb!
Got a pretty good smooth finish and that's with an old 5/8" slot drill. I used that because it's how I'm going to cut the hole to match the cylinder bore in the square piece, however, I need to change the cutter anyway to cut the rads on the corners so it was floored logic! I should have tried one of my cheap chinese brand new cutters on this soft stuff, would prob get a good finish whacking the speed up with a new cutter.
Here's the bit of metal
Hacksawed it in 2 and put both pieces back in the milling vice.
Finished the sawed ends to length. Milled to marked lines by eye then measured and I still needed to take another 10 thou off both times. Did this with the hand wheels, they aren't that accurate but it's only about 2 thou over size ... good enough.
Left it at that tongiht and quite while I was ahead! Or at least not made any mistakes! I was going to leave that set up and basically finish using the handwheels but I think I better take them out and mark up as a check. Might even use marking blue - any tips on that? I've never really used the stuff before, not sure on the techniques!
BY this time tomorrow I should (touch wood) have those 2 frame pieces done and a part assembly that should start to resemble an engine of sorts!
Nick
sbwhart:
Hi Nick
Nice work :thumbup: I usually put marking blue on with a soft brush leave it for 10 - 15 min to hardeb off.
Next time your at RG ask the guys on engineering if they can get you some "Showa" gloves, their cotton coated with some durable rubber especially developed to prevent cuts, better still give them a ring and get them to post you some up.
The big problem with surgical gloves is your hands start smelling like feat :lol:
Have fun
Stew
NickG:
Stew, will give it a go. How do you get the stuff back off? With emery cloth? Although these bits have a really smooth finish you can still see lots of machining marks from the end mill so think I might give them a rub on emery to get rid of that. Might look a bit un finished if it's got all those swirl marks on it.
Will make some enquiries about the gloves!
Having fun so far! I think the problem I might get with this ali frame is cutting threads. It seems really soft stuff. 5 threads to cut, is there any kind of lubericant you can use to imrpove this? Paraffin?
Nick
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