[AiR_GuNNeR]

Very nice. Is that magazine for a Rapid?

[gd.marsh]

Thanks Air Gunner,

It's not a Rapid .. this one is for a Marauder Pistol or P-Rod as they're commonly known.
I'm making my own magazines because the P-Rod only comes in .22 cal.
I've converted mine to .177 for backyard use.

At the present time my collection does not include a Rapid, although that would sure be nice!!!

gd.marsh

[jid2]

That came out awesome, nice work! Do you manually rotate it, or is it spring driven?

[gd.marsh]

Thanks Jid2,

It's spring driven .. bolt action cocks the gun & magazine indexes the next pellet as it's pulled back. Slide the bolt forward, it chambers the pellet & is ready to shoot ..
Not my design .. pretty common with slight variations among 'adult airguns'

[John1987]

Great thread! What's new to the machine?

[gd.marsh]

John,

Thanks for the compliment .. actually there's not a great deal that's new with the machine. In fact I just got it set-up & running again after completely re-organizing my garage.
Picked up a new-to-me 12X40 Saimp Lathe (Italian - 1963) & a Bridgeport manual mill (with shaper head). Measured each & every item in the shop & played with floor plans in AutoCad so I'd only have to move each piece once! Still not complete with the shop because I have to sell off my old G1006/7 mill & my Logan lathe to clear some more space.

In the mean time I'm working on a chuck mounting plate for my rotary table at the moment so I can finish a project that requires some indexing.

Here's some crappy phone pictures of the key players in my shop!!!

Gary

[arizonavideo]

Thats looks like a great looking little lathe. Is it re painted or is that the stock coating?

[bill south]

I do love old iron!
Nice additions.
Bill

[gd.marsh]

Arizona,

It does appear to have been repainted .. in spots where both old & new are visible, new paint seems fairly close to original. Might have been sold through a dealer at some point in it's life, although I found it locally on craigslist.

I'm quite happy with this machine .. the manual doesn't list the weight (which seems odd to me) but the rigger who moved it estimated 3 to 4K. It's definitely in different class from the 11X24 Logan it's replacing. Still rather small in overall footprint though which makes it ideal for a garage shop.

Bill,

Me too .. always loved my Logan (1952) - just decided I was ready for something with more power.

Gary

[gd.marsh]

A little video of the Shaper head in action in case anyone is interested ..
I considered using the CNC to do this before I got the Bridgeport .. I decided it would be way to hard on the spindle bearings & ball screw ..
Glad I held off on that one!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbaiiRRxMtE

[Fastest1]

I didnt realize that was you? I had just commented on why you didnt show the apparatus.

[gd.marsh]

Time for some spring cleaning ..

The Mill has been running well for several years now but after minor changes, additions, re-do's, etc. the control box is a crowded mess .. So I've decided it's time to start over & make it a little neater & easier to work on ..

I have a computer, 3 power supplies, contactor, bob, smooth stepper, 4 gecko servo drives & 1 stepper drive, vfd, several relays, buss bars, fans, etc. all stuffed into one enclosure that sits on the floor.
My plan is to break all that up into 2 enclosures that are fixed to the back of the machine.

I'm thinking along these lines ..
Box 1 will house: contactor, power supplies, computer, vfd, buss bars, wire duct, fans .. (mostly the higher voltage items)
Box 2 will house: bob, smooth stepper, drives, relays, buss bars, wire duct, fans .. (mostly lower voltage items)

What I'm not sure of is are there any components that should be separated (because of: Noise, RFI, etc) or any that shouldn't be separated for any particular reason.
If any of the more electronically minded would like to steer me in a better direction .. I'm all ears ..

Thanks in advance,
gd.marsh

[AiR_GuNNeR]

GD,
I would consider keeping the motherboard and probably the SS separate from the VFD. The VFD can be pretty noisy.

[dracozny]

GD,
I would consider keeping the motherboard and probably the SS separate from the VFD. The VFD can be pretty noisy.

My setup as an example: The VFD is in my case but is electrically isolated via grounding and strategic firewalls within the case. The drives also have a firewall isolating them as well. Although I am currently use an enclosed server rack.

[rwskinner]

I hear that Gary! I recently bought a new Sharp TMV-K (Series 2 clone) that will help with this. I'm starting to see some backlash and my wiring needs to be cleaned up some.

Dang, 10 minutes to type one sentence,what have they done to this editor!

Richard

Time for some spring cleaning ..

The Mill has been running well for several years now but after minor changes, additions, re-do's, etc. the control box is a crowded mess .. So I've decided it's time to start over & make it a little neater & easier to work on ..

I have a computer, 3 power supplies, contactor, bob, smooth stepper, 4 gecko servo drives & 1 stepper drive, vfd, several relays, buss bars, fans, etc. all stuffed into one enclosure that sits on the floor.
My plan is to break all that up into 2 enclosures that are fixed to the back of the machine.

I'm thinking along these lines ..
Box 1 will house: contactor, power supplies, computer, vfd, buss bars, wire duct, fans .. (mostly the higher voltage items)
Box 2 will house: bob, smooth stepper, drives, relays, buss bars, wire duct, fans .. (mostly lower voltage items)

What I'm not sure of is are there any components that should be separated (because of: Noise, RFI, etc) or any that shouldn't be separated for any particular reason.
If any of the more electronically minded would like to steer me in a better direction .. I'm all ears ..

Thanks in advance,
gd.marsh

[gd.marsh]

Richard,

Congrats on the new Sharp!
I really enjoy having the full capabilities of the Bridgeport in my shop ..
One thing about having a CNC Conversion .. it seems there's ALWAYS another project to do, weather tuning-up or improving the beast!

Gary

[gd.marsh]

Been a while since I've posted to this thread .. Lot's happening on my end. I've converted my machine to a BT30 spindle so have had to acquire a new set of tool holders. So .. I'm looking to sell the collection of the TTS stuff I have.
I am willing to ship to the lower 48 via flat rate if anyone from the zone is interested.

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/tls/6008933425.html

[Djkd20q]

what route did you take in converting to bt30?

[gd.marsh]

Charter Oaks sells a BT30 spindle that is a drop in fit for many of the 45 class machines .. It was simply a matter of replacing one with the other .. I did pop in a new set of bearings while I was at it.
Not sure if my experience was unique, but I had my bellville washers set up to produce 3600 lbs of force & still experience TTS slippage under heavier cutting conditions. Same even after changing to a new Tormach R8 collet.
I just felt that my machine should be able to handle greater forces than what I could achieve previously. With the BT30 & a thread-in drawbar I've already proven that to be true.

[RustedOut]

I went that route last year too. I gave up on R8 tooling, never had TTS stuff. But I took it a step farther, I made a new spindle housing and went with matched angular contact bearings in the lower end and a deep ball up top. Mine is a IH/Charter Oak mill. I copied a Bridgeport setup with a tube spacer between the top single bearing and lower bearing pair, then used a retaining ring at the bottom to hold it in place in the housing. One of the best things I've done for the mill, I swear it's much more rigid. I'm running a threaded draw bar and don't intend to change from that. But I do want to make a dc motor drive for an auto draw bar.

It's taken quite a while to tool up for it though, but my BT30 collection is filling out. Maybe I've been losing out on eBay to you. I don't try that hard though as I only need a few more to be done with the collection.

Bob