The Alliterative Engine
Simpson and Shipton Short Stroke Episode 1b or Where’s Waldo Stan Sometime in the recent past, I started the Simpson and Shipton Short Stroke.
Stew Hart was exceptionally helpful and it looked as if it would move right along.
Then....
When I started the whole CNC thing, people said “Any Windows computer is fine.” As a Mac guy since 1984, I've paid little attention to Windows boxes.
Actually, my first computers were a TRS-80 and then a Kaypro II running CP/M. Then there was grad school and PDP-11s to run the graphics workstations.
I went to Microcenter and bought a low to midrange HP desktop. (Daddy always said, “Never buy the bottom of the line”) which worked well enough. Inventor CAD and CAM were fine (not super speedy, but worked,) Hires renders gave me time to break for lunch.
Mach 4 ran without a glitch. Good so far.
On Friday, I went down to the shop (“Velcome back to the shop”) to model a part in Inventor and the computer wouldn’t turn on. Tried all of the magic tricks that HP suggested. Nada.
Drove the box over to Microcenter. The repair guy said, “Motherboard. $350 parts and labor.”
No way I’m dropping that into a cheepo Chinese HP box.
I had pretty much convinced myself to go to the Apple store, give them my AMEX and get a new iMac. When you boot it into Windows, it’s pretty much better than an actual Windows box. (PC Magazine said that the best Windows laptop was a MacBook Pro running WIN 7 or 10)
When I was looking at tech support on HP website, I caught a link to a CAD workstation but kept on going. HP
CAD Workstations are hot. Very fast and certified by Solidworks, Inventor, Autocad, Yada Yada, but, as I remembered, crazy expensive.
Not so much anymore.
Ended up ordering the HP Z2 Mini, CAD/Cam Graphics workstation.
After setting it up with Inventor, Mach4, Repetier Host and Server (3D printing), etc and all was running well, the internal drive was cloned to a 1TB Samsung SSD.
Speed is astounding. Windows boots in under 10 seconds. Inventor loads in about 20 seconds (down from nearly a minute on the old computer.)
Then, I spent a day building an enclosure for the CNC.
With that done, I thought I'd get rolling on the Simpson and Shipton as soon as I made a quick part for my brother. A few ˝" holes, 1" deep in 6061.
Although I rarely use it, this seemed like a good time to use the Bridgeport’s auto downfeed.
Set the depth stop. Pick the feed rate. Engage the lever. Drilling commences and releases a clutch when it hits the depth stop. Right.
Lever wouldn't move. Entire mechanism was locked up. After getting out the Complete Bridgeport Repair and Rebuilding manual and disassembling the parts, I realized that one of the trip lever's ears had snapped off.
Yet another project? My first thought was to order a new lever from H&W. went to their website. $85.00!
Why should I spend $85 when I have thousands of $ in machines.
Initially, I thought the part was steel but on closer inspection it was cast bronze. Don't find much of that on import mills.
Suddenly this got a lot easier.
New end in brass, quality time with Oliver, cut off broken ear section. Silver solder, file and paint.
3 hours yesterday morning and all is well.
And, for another time, the design and installation of the small electric trolley hoist to lift the Kurt, dividing head and rotary table on and off the Bridgeport.
Add in, removing the leaves and tuning up the snowblower, Good timing.
various and sundry home activities (like replacing chowdered mounting screws in my friend’s dishwasher
bread production
and Fred’s twice-yearly Gun Day. (Note: there are 4 MEM members here)
It's a wonder I get any engines built.