Author Topic: Hobby Machine Shop  (Read 3677 times)

Offline LAmachinist

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Re: Hobby Machine Shop
« Reply #15 on: January 19, 2020, 06:26:37 PM »
Thank you all for the comments!  In a way, it is fun to work with a small space and budget - it requires much more patience and cleverness than what one might be used to in an industrial setting.  And there are some benefits, even compared to high-budget industrial environments: MSDS? writing up a standard operating procedure? having the industrial hygienist approve the operation? - forget about it.  This small 16x16 foot space is my oasis.

Jo - you you seem to be one for cutting to the heart of the matter - "what have you made with it"!   :thinking:  Well it turns out that if you buy enough broken-down worn-out machine tools, the home machine shop becomes a self-sustaining project! 

The bandsaw arrived missing half the gears in the gearbox, and someone had been in there with an arc welder to 'fix' it (leaving the machine permanently in high gear).   :facepalm:  The Clausing 8520 mill had a broken gear in the quill fine feed mechanism (a common problem with these machines).  The shaper was completely worn out.  The rolling mill arrived with two broken gears of non-standard face width that had to be re-made.   So it turns out I have made many things - gears, splined shafts, dials, leadscrews... 

Awake - if you know of any good resource to learn more about these repulsion-induction motors, please let me know.  I originally thought I would replace it with something modern (I'm sure getting 2hp out of a 150lb motor was impressive for the time).  But once I cleaned it up and used it, I think I will leave it alone.   

As far as I know, the Hansvedt WEDM is the only commercial WEDM small enough to fit through the door.  I used to use similar vintage Brother EDMs at work.  The Hansvedts are no match for Brothers in terms of programming ease (and there is no graphing function on my EDM - a stylus drops down to trace the program on a sheet of paper!).  Yet it is still a handy machine - and still supported (bought by Arrow EDM).   


Offline scc

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Re: Hobby Machine Shop
« Reply #16 on: January 19, 2020, 09:11:41 PM »
Lovely, well equipped shop......Terry

ChuckKey

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Re: Hobby Machine Shop
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2020, 09:29:01 PM »
And so <add your own adjective> clean!

Offline LAmachinist

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Re: Hobby Machine Shop
« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2020, 11:42:06 PM »
Yes - ordinarily I would say cleanliness is a sign of an idle workshop.  Yet I use it regularly.  It's just that when the bedroom carpet is only 8 feet from the lathe and milling machine, cleaning up those spiral chips becomes a necessity.  I even have to mop after machining graphite to keep the rest of the house from turning black. 

Still, it does the job!  :cheers:

Offline awake

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Re: Hobby Machine Shop
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2020, 01:39:43 AM »
Wikipedia has some basic info, but it is not obvious - you actually have to look up Repulsion Motor, and then you can see that there is the Repulsion-Induction variant near the bottom. But the key info is how the repulsion system works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repulsion_motor

Andy

 

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