Elmer's Grasshopper

[RReid]

My “other” current project, or the one that is most being worked on currently,  is Elmer Verburg's “Grasshopper Engine”. The cylinder of this one is fun because it incorporates round flanges on the ends with flat surfaces in between. A good exercise for both the lathe and the new mill, and visually interesting. I'm not straying from the plans at all, except for adding some reliefs to the beam to bling it up a little, and trying Delrin rather than aluminum for the piston. Oh, and I screwed up the location of the center cross brace in the column. Should be able to work around that, I think it's mostly cosmetic anyway. Here are a few pics of the progress to date.

[RReid]

Elmer's drawings show the upper end of the column and the two bearing blocks being radiused. This morning I experimented with using the lathe headstock as a simple manual rotary table. Credit for the idea goes to Keith Brooke, as posted on Nick Carter's excellent Taig-centric website. Seemed to work pretty well. Down milling is to be avoided for any but the lightest cut, but up milling is no problem, within reason. A spindle brake/lock would certainly be a help. I used the 4 jaw (with one jaw removed) for the experiment, but will probably clamp the real parts to a faceplate.

[Kim]

That's a very interesting use of the headstock and the milling attachment! 

I'm a Taig owner myself.  I started with just the taig lathe about 10 years ago.  Then got the Taig mill, and a few years later got a bigger lathe, then a couple years back got a bigger mill.  I don't use my Taig setups much anymore, but still have them just in case!

Very nice work on the Grasshopper - that's going to be a nice engine too.

Kim

[EricB]

Ron,

Nice work so far!

It's a common practice (with Sherline tools anyway) to use a second headstock for indexing. I would want some type of positive control of the spindle to try and cut an arc.

Be sure to place a shim under your stock so you don't crash into your chuck or faceplate.

Eric

[RReid]

a few years later got a bigger lathe, then a couple years back got a bigger mill.  I don't use my Taig setups much anymore,

I promise not to hold that against you Kim. 

Thanks Eric.

[RReid]

Been whittling away on Grasshopper parts. Using the lathe headstock as a rotary table worked OK, but without any positive stops or even means to increase the rotating friction, it was tricky working up to those little shoulders. I got it close, then finished off with files. (photo 1)

Also got the bearing blocks and the crankshaft done. The Allen screws are acting as set-screws for the bushings, and are temporary stand-ins. I plan to make a couple of little brass oil cups to go in their place. (photo 2)

The plans call for notching the steel base for the upright arm that pivots on a pin and supports that end of the beam. I decided instead to make a separate aluminum bit to serve that function. Faced it to dimension on the lathe, then notched it and drilled it part way on the mill with a 10-32 tap drill. Then I clamped it to the base plate and drilled through into the base on the drill press, after which the hole in the ali part got clearance drilled. (photo 3)

That upright arm also gets a squared notch at the top to receive the beam. Here's the wrong way to set that up. This didn't look rigid enough to me, and so it proved. (photo 4)

Here's the better way. (photo 5)

Followed by the vertical set-up just to square off the bottom. I also realized that I could drop the part down into the table slot, reducing the height above the top of the angle plate. This worked fine. (photo 6)

That upright arm will be getting some cosmetic openings cut into it, but here is how it all looks so far. (photo 7)

[propforward]

That engine is coming along really well. You are making very nice components.

[RReid]

Thanks Stuart!

One handy little accessory I ordered along with my milling machine is the little fixture shown below. It's threaded 3/4-16 to match the Taig lathe spindle nose and bolts to the mill table. I don't imagine it's a Taig original idea, and many of you probably already have something similar, but if you don't you might want one! Being able to move the chuck or collets from lathe to mill table and back without disturbing the part set-up, or just moving parts between mounted collets as shown here, is really convenient sometimes. (image

The part I'm working on the upper fork for the connecting rod between the crank pin and the beam. I'd already mounted the bar in the 4 jaw and turned a ¼ in spigot for the 5-40 threaded portion. That was used to mount it in the collet above, then back to the lathe to drill and tap. (image 9)

To round of the end I went old school. I parted off a piece of ¼ rod to be a snug fit between the jaws and used that as a filing guide. Started with a mill file and finished with needle file and wet/dry paper. (image 10, 11, 12 13, 14)

On to the next thing...

[crueby]

Ron - the images/videos/whatever they are in that last post are not coming through, just showing as an odd symbol. Not marked as public or something maybe?

[RReid]

Thanks for letting me know Chris. I can see the images, so I thought I had it. I'm trying to use Google Photos and I have an idea what's wrong, but if that doesn't work I'll go back to attaching the pics at the end for now.

[crueby]

Are you using the Share button and Create Link to get the path to the photos? You can't just take the URL from when you are viewing the photo in Google Photos, that is just available to you.

[RReid]

Are you using the Share button and Create Link to get the path to the photos? You can't just take the URL from when you are viewing the photo in Google Photos, that is just available to you.

I used Copy Image Link which gave me images in the post that I can see, but I can understand why others don't. I had tried the Share button and Create Link earlier, and again on your suggestion, but that doesn't give me any images in the post at all. I'm using the Insert Image button in the post editor. What am I missing?

[RReid]

Redo:

Thanks Stuart!

One handy little accessory I ordered along with my milling machine is the little fixture shown below. It's threaded 3/4-16 to match the Taig lathe spindle nose and bolts to the mill table. I don't imagine it's a Taig original idea, and many of you probably already have something similar, but if you don't you might want one! Being able to move the chuck or collets from lathe to mill table and back without disturbing the part set-up, or just moving parts between mounted collets as shown here, is really convenient sometimes. (image

The part I'm working on the upper fork for the connecting rod between the crank pin and the beam. I'd already mounted the bar in the 4 jaw and turned a ¼ in spigot for the 5-40 threaded portion. That was used to mount it in the collet above, then back to the lathe to drill and tap. (image 9)

To round of the end I went old school. I parted off a piece of ¼ rod to be a snug fit between the jaws and used that as a filing guide. Started with a mill file and finished with needle file and wet/dry paper. (images 10, 11, 12 13, 14)

On to the next thing...

[crueby]

Are you using the Share button and Create Link to get the path to the photos? You can't just take the URL from when you are viewing the photo in Google Photos, that is just available to you.

I used Copy Image Link which gave me images in the post that I can see, but I can understand why others don't. I had tried the Share button and Create Link earlier, and again on your suggestion, but that doesn't give me any images in the post at all. I'm using the Insert Image button in the post editor. What am I missing?

Maybe google photos doesn't allow themselves to be used as a photo host for forums? Not sure, I use PostImage for mine. Anyone else use google photos for thier posts here?

[joe d]

Coming along nicely, Ron.  I've not seen that collet fixture for the Taig mill before, I need one of those!

Cheers, Joe