MARBLE LIFTING AUTOMATION

[nevadablue]

Truly amazing... a marble lifting engine. 

Thanks for all the pics, just looking at the setups inspires... 

[Brian Rupnow]

Tonight we will make an attempt at the countershaft mount. (That's the yellow piece) behind the 15 tooth gear.

[Alan Haisley]

Simon--I did have divider plates on the input crank side of the rotary table. It required 15 holes on an 18 hole plate to give me the correct angle between all of the teeth. (3.3333 degrees) To do it by just reading the angle scale on the rotary table would never work on a gear with this many teeth. You would have far too much accumulated error by the time you got to the 108th tooth. In fact, gears are not all that forgiving of angular disparity, even on small gears with just a few teeth, I use the divider plates.

In the Sherline instructions for their rotary table, Joe Martin says to make a list of all of the rotary offsets starting from zero rather than using an offset from tooth to tooth. That avoids the accumulated error problem.
Alan
 

[mklotz]

Simon--I did have divider plates on the input crank side of the rotary table. It required 15 holes on an 18 hole plate to give me the correct angle between all of the teeth. (3.3333 degrees) To do it by just reading the angle scale on the rotary table would never work on a gear with this many teeth. You would have far too much accumulated error by the time you got to the 108th tooth. In fact, gears are not all that forgiving of angular disparity, even on small gears with just a few teeth, I use the divider plates.

In the Sherline instructions for their rotary table, Joe Martin says to make a list of all of the rotary offsets starting from zero rather than using an offset from tooth to tooth. That avoids the accumulated error problem.
Alan

But Brian's method has no roundoff error associated with it.  360 divided by 108 is 10/3 deg per tooth exactly.  He has a 90:1 rotary table so each turn of the crank is 4 deg of table rotation.  10/3 divided by 4 is 10/12 = 5/6 of a turn per tooth.  15 holes on an 18 hole plate = 15/18 = 5/6 of a turn exactly.

Joe's method is correct for situations where the angular increment per tooth can't be expressed as a rational fraction though. 

[Brian Rupnow]

Marv Klotz---I thought you had fallen right off the face of the earth!!! How nice to hear from you!!---Brian

[Brian Rupnow]

I got this far and gave it up for the night. Bandsaw blade is dull as a hoe!!! I try to get a year out of the bi-metallic blades, but invariably I end up trying to cut something that's hard as the devils horn, and I don't know about it until I've knocked all the "sharp" off the teeth. ----And it generally happens about 2 weeks after I've bought the new blade. Blades aren't cheap!! I pay about $50 each at BusyBee, and that's imported stuff. Maybe this weekend I'll buy a blade.

[gerritv]

Brian, have you looked at KBC Tools for blades? http://www.kbctools.com/can/Navigation/NavPDF.cfm?PDFPage=232. They have a location in Mississauga

Gerrit

[Brian Rupnow]

There isn't too much I can say about this shot. The gears mesh the way I had hoped they would, and My Goodness --There's a lot of work in that new piece which supports the shaft with the small gear on it!!!

[Brian Rupnow]

I found out today that there is a place in Brampton, Ontario that will make up a bimetal blade to order, and they are actually cheaper than BusyBee. They explained to me that their bimetal blades are a 14-10 tooth combination, with one inch of blade cut with 10 teeth per inch and 1" of blade cut with 14 teeth per inch, alternating over the full length of the blade. They claim longer blade life and easier cutting. The 93" blade in bimetal at BusyBee is $55.00 plus 13% tax. The blade from Tuff-tooth costs $50.06 including tax and shipping. I'll give a report on whether or not the blade works well.

[Don1966]

Brian why not buy the carbide blades of coarse they are more expensive but cut and last a lot longer. They will cut through metal like cutting soap. http://www.rockler.com/laguna-tools-resaw-king-carbide-bandsaw-blade-3-4-inch-carbide-blade

Don

[Brian Rupnow]

At $150 a pop, that's too rich for my blood. I'll pay $50 a year for 3 years. At least that way, if I wreck a blade, its only $50 to replace it.

[Don1966]

Yea I know it's a little steep, but the upside is it cuts and you can resharpen it five times. If it breaks I have a bandsaw splicing kit to repair it with. I had gone through quick a few blades that didn't cut very good before I got this one, no regrets buying it.

Don

[Brian Rupnow]

My new blade came in today and I installed it on my bandsaw this evening. It is the same thickness (.036") as the blades from BusyBee and the same width, at 3/4". I cut a piece of 1" aluminum with it, and although its hard to be totally subjective about it, it seems to cut much faster than the old blade did.---of course like I said in my earlier post, the old blade was painfully dull. The price came in at a total of $51.65, which is $10.50 cheaper than BusyBee, delivered right to my mailbox. The name of the company in Brampton is R &D Bandsaws. The "Tufftooth" must be the name for their bimetal blades.

[Brian Rupnow]

Now that my gear cutting is out of the way, it's time to put a pulley on that shaft that has the small gear carved on it. I am not sure of the torque requirements on this machine, so I have decided to use a flat belt drive on it, similar to the one on my sawmill. That way I don't have to be concerned with slippage like you get with an o-ring drive. Flat belts are a bear to wander off the pulley, so I will put a couple of 1/8" high flanges on the edges to keep the belt on. I went down to my metal supplier this morning and paid $10 for a 6" length of 5" x 1" aluminum, which will become the pulley over the next couple of weeks.

[Alan Haisley]

My new blade came in today and I installed it on my bandsaw this evening. It is the same thickness (.036") as the blades from BusyBee and the same width, at 3/4". I cut a piece of 1" aluminum with it, and although its hard to be totally subjective about it, it seems to cut much faster than the old blade did.---of course like I said in my earlier post, the old blade was painfully dull. The price came in at a total of $51.65, which is $10.50 cheaper than BusyBee, delivered right to my mailbox. The name of the company in Brampton is R &D Bandsaws. The "Tufftooth" must be the name for their bimetal blades.

Brian,
Take a look at this:
http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/sharpening.html
Granted, this guy works in wood, not metal, but at $50+ a pop, plus waiting for delivery, his method may let you get that one piece of metal cut that you just need right now.
Alan