• Welcome to RCCrawler Forums.

    It looks like you're enjoying RCCrawler's Forums but haven't created an account yet. Why not take a minute to register for your own free account now? As a member you get free access to all of our forums and posts plus the ability to post your own messages, communicate directly with other members, and much more. Register now!

    Already a member? Login at the top of this page to stop seeing this message.

Shop Holmes

What shop would be complete without some reference material? Not much to look at, but just enough to get the job done. "thumbsup"

You will notice it is heavy on the statistics and management. My two favorite reads: "Handbook of Small Electric Motors" and "How to Be a Gentleman"



Also got some really swank prototype armatures in the mail. Thanks to the Handbook of Small Electric Motors I used a little bit of math to specify the particulars of the new layout and hit the nail on the head first time "thumbsup".
 

Attachments

  • Reference material.jpg
    Reference material.jpg
    112.3 KB · Views: 1,362
What shop would be complete without some reference material? Not much to look at, but just enough to get the job done. "thumbsup"

You will notice it is heavy on the statistics and management. My two favorite reads: "Handbook of Small Electric Motors" and "How to Be a Gentleman"



Also got some really swank prototype armatures in the mail. Thanks to the Handbook of Small Electric Motors I used a little bit of math to specify the particulars of the new layout and hit the nail on the head first time "thumbsup".

Yay for reading!
 
The next three rotors I will be bringing to market all used motor engineering math to ensure I got exactly what I wanted. Yay for reading indeed!

Now I just gotta figure out the math for the comm termination machine power. It is a very hefty formula, I was actually quite surprised they had math for determining the wattage needed to properly heat them up during manufacturing. Its one of those formulas that is more of a ballpark figure though, the actual in-use tuning still has to be done with trial and error.
 
"thumbsup""thumbsup" for technical math! I have a profound respect for the people who actually comprehend it, I'm not included in that group.

I got through E=I x R and P=I x E ( and the manipulations of the formulas to find a missing variable) and once upon a time I could calculate inductive re-acttance, but 30 years on never using it has pushed it so far back into the brain, I'll never find it again.
 
Just a little bit of play time. Longitudinal slotting so I can grip it easier with sweaty hands. Its the can that stays with my Fussy Brush, nothing special.

Changed up my programming a bit on the lightened motor cans. While we haven't had any issues so far, I'm concerned that the thinner cans will pop magnets off easily. With the Medium and Heavy lightening I can pop magnets out just by squeezing the cans a bit with two fingers. Shown is the new design with stiffening ring, it is a very small weight penalty but the can is no longer flexible. This can is Medium lightened on the radius, part of the Stage 4 kit. It still comes in at 65.8g which is 23g less than regular can. Black anti-rust treatment is standard. Just a little preventative design I suppose.
 

Attachments

  • Longitudinal cut can.JPG
    Longitudinal cut can.JPG
    79.7 KB · Views: 1,264
  • Light Can.JPG
    Light Can.JPG
    72.4 KB · Views: 1,224
Last edited:
Nice work on the top can...I can definitely understand how that would make work easier with the Fussy Brush 8)

All of these motor options are really cool!
 
Work is getting in the way of shop play time, wahhh!! Now if you could just stop buying my goods for a few months I could get these new motors out faster :lol: The spoke machine has been going nuts lately, I spent four hours on it today while my helper packaged other orders, and I still have another 3 hours for tomorrow to get caught up to monday. Counting the days until I have that extra worker on my spoke machine, its turned into the one thing I avoid doing each day and the one thing I ALWAYS have work on.


Got my coolant system installed and tuned in, it is a pretty snazzy setup! Money very well spent! As long as the machine doesn't crash I can step away and do other work while it runs now, I've been picking through my Gcode and slowing down the plunge to help prevent the bits catching. I've only managed 10 hour days the past two though, I'm starting to wear out towards the week end! I'll shoot for Puller faces on Saturday, maybe do the slightly smaller diameter version of magnet layout.
 
Not sure what your program is capable of but when i can I try and either plunge and end mill into a hole at least 1/2" its diameter at a slower speed for entry or if I can help it ramp/helix it in at about a 1-5* angle (that depends on the material, I go lower on steels!) so that the cutter is working more how it was designed. End mills hate straight out plunging unless designed for the job :x

Overall nice setup on the cans "thumbsup"
 
yeah, a helix/ramp entry, a pre-drill (even if its a pecking cycle with the endmill, use an extra fine peck), or ideally an outside entry, are always better options than a plunge..
 
I'll try using ramp entry and see how that works. I'm coming in on round stock with the bit offset, so it is not a full plunge on the material but I could see how a ramped entry would really help the feed.


Chipped a 4 flute yesterday when the height got out of whack. I'm running a two flute on steel right now, yuck! Increased the spindle a bit and had to reduce feed rates 200% to keep chatter away. I have some nice carbide 3 and 4 flute radius mills on the way that should do a much better job.
 
Messing around with timing ring material for the 500 Pullers and 540 motors. The CF is nice and light at .8g, but there isn't much purchase for threads. The G10 ring is 1.9g and should hold threads just fine with a little additive on them. Might have to swap to aluminum if the threads just won't hold over time, testing will tell. I do have some threaded inserts on the way too, but the added weight of the inserts will probably offset any gain between alloy and CF rings.


Got the fogbuster installed and running, probably the single best accessory I could get!
 

Attachments

  • timing-rings.jpg
    timing-rings.jpg
    60.9 KB · Views: 1,062
  • fogbuster.jpg
    fogbuster.jpg
    77.7 KB · Views: 1,469
I'll try using ramp entry and see how that works. I'm coming in on round stock with the bit offset, so it is not a full plunge on the material but I could see how a ramped entry would really help the feed.


Chipped a 4 flute yesterday when the height got out of whack. I'm running a two flute on steel right now, yuck! Increased the spindle a bit and had to reduce feed rates 200% to keep chatter away. I have some nice carbide 3 and 4 flute radius mills on the way that should do a much better job.
Are you doing a "climb" or "conventional" cut?
 
Depends on what and how I'm cutting. Working on the cans has to be a conventional cut because of how I set up the bit, climb chatters and feeds material into the big vertically. On plastics I typically climb cut all the time as the finish is better.



Building a vac head this morning before I swap the table over to cut some Puller parts. I'll try to snap some vids in the next few days.



I'm gonna build a lathe adapter for the machine I have concluded. Something quick swappable and small that I can bolt onto the bed and use the headstock to run the bit.
 
Vac head complete. This is more for work on CF than anything else, but if it works well enough I'll just keep it on the machine full time. I used the last bit of my scrap plexi so it would give some view of the work, then superglued my fingers to it when attaching the rubber skirt :ror: Skirt is made from used bicycle tube, I have lots of them here in a bucket and frequently find uses for it.


I did the final fitment and "vortex" work with a dremel. I have read that some sort of air disturbance around the inlet really helps keep dust from building up in edges and I felt froggy after doing the vac hose taper on the left side of the head.
 

Attachments

  • vac-head.jpg
    vac-head.jpg
    76.1 KB · Views: 991
I'm starting to hate the CAM program I'm using right now, DeskProto. Its actually really good for 4th axis stuff, but I can't control feed speeds on the first cuts without modifying the file direct and it spits out coordinates instead of G02 commands for circles. Can't modify the paths manually either. Just spent 40 minutes watching it cut some high precision parts (15 minutes cutting air) and then watched it bury the bit and attempt a full width cut at full speed :evil: Breaking the bit of course.


The file I just spit out for some 0.002" precision (file path) parts was almost a million lines long because of all the g01 stepping instead of just using circle or arc functions. Gimme some g02 codes dammit!


One little gem out of this is that I am pretty good at banging out Gcode manually now, although nowhere near pro. I'll keep my CAM software thank you :lmao: Gonna try hsmXpress now, and maybe see how MasterCAM is getting along since I used it last.
 
I'm starting to hate the CAM program I'm using right now, DeskProto. Its actually really good for 4th axis stuff, but I can't control feed speeds on the first cuts without modifying the file direct and it spits out coordinates instead of G02 commands for circles. Can't modify the paths manually either. Just spent 40 minutes watching it cut some high precision parts (15 minutes cutting air) and then watched it bury the bit and attempt a full width cut at full speed :evil: Breaking the bit of course.


The file I just spit out for some 0.002" precision (file path) parts was almost a million lines long because of all the g01 stepping instead of just using circle or arc functions. Gimme some g02 codes dammit!


One little gem out of this is that I am pretty good at banging out Gcode manually now, although nowhere near pro. I'll keep my CAM software thank you :lmao: Gonna try hsmXpress now, and maybe see how MasterCAM is getting along since I used it last.

I hadnt mentioned it here yet, but I actually bought a taig for at the house myself. As of this weekend, is was up and running, but my y-axis drive in the g540 went down, so it needs to go in for repair. At any rate, I program with HSMWorks, so if you go that route, and have any post processor issues, let me know :)

I do forget though, are you running mach3 or linuxcnc?
 
Mach3. I can't figure out how to get hsm working proper yet, but I only spent 5 minutes on it. The one problem is that not all of my drawings in CAD are oriented properly for machining, so I have to export them and import them to flip em unless there is a special feature I am missing in sW10
 
Back
Top