Tools

I’m working on some electronics for tools like these. I want to bring the costs within reach of the advanced hobbyist. And not just for predesigned tools. Anything you want up to 8 axis. You provide the machine we provide the controls. I’m planning to use the tools/electronics on the Proton-Boron Fusion Project.


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11 responses to “Tools”

  1. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    What is the tool used starting 6:49? It’s hogging out an ID and I can’t figure out how it works. Is the cutting tip moving vertically?

  2. Simon Avatar

    CR,

    Isn’t the tool at 6:49 putting a key way inside the bore?

    Don’t quote me on that. I know a LOT more about electronics than I do about machining.

  3. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    You’re right. Most of the video shows lathing & drilling & surface milling. The machining of that slot didn’t use rotation, rather it looks to be a scraping process. I thought it was interesting how that slot actually get made.

  4. perlhaqr Avatar
    perlhaqr

    CR: It’s doing an operation known as “broaching”. It *is* a cutting process, just like the rest of the video, even if it looks rather different. (“Cutting” as opposed to “scraping”. Sort of how a deck plane works, if you do woodwork. But I don’t want to call it “planing”, because that’s a different operation, in machining-speak. ๐Ÿ™‚ ) It’s just using a cutter that’s moving linearly against a stationary surface, rather than linearly against a rotating surface, or moving radially.

    It’s actually a really impressive demo for a CNC tool like that, because it requires a *lot* of rigidity. I mean, every machining operation is sort of a tug-of-war between tool regidity, fixture rigidity, and material strength, but with a lathe or mill op, you at least have the advantage of being able to move the cutting surface very fast, relative to the workpiece. That broaching tool–*especially* given that it’s being done into a blind hole, it looks like–has to be moving a lot slower, relatively speaking, than the flutes on one of the endmills, for example. It’s probably taking pretty small depths of cut, but even so, the tool is going to want to dive into the material, rather than take nice cuts.

    Simon: You’re correct that the result of the broaching operation is a key way. ๐Ÿ™‚

    -perlhaqr; computer jock, machinist, welder, EMT, market anarchist. ๐Ÿ˜€

  5. perlhaqr Avatar
    perlhaqr

    BTW: Ended up here off a comment link at Reason, and OMG that is some sexy sexy machining porn you’ve got there. ๐Ÿ˜€

  6. Simon Avatar

    Well,

    Here is some power porn:

    http://protonboron.com/portal/power-grid-frequency-meter/

    BTW keep in touch. We will be needing a machinist down the road. esp for the multi-axis tools I’m doing motors and electronics for.

  7. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Perlhaqr: Thanks for the explanation. I always wondered how such slots were made. Was the same process used pre-CNC?

  8. perlhaqr Avatar
    perlhaqr

    CR: Basically. There are a couple of different ways to do it. There are reciprocating broaching machines, which have roughly the same form factor as a drill press, only instead of a rotating quill, they have a reciprocating head that the tool gets mounted in. The part you’re putting a broached hole through goes on the table, which will have some mechanism for precision motion, so that between strokes of the broaching tool, you can move the work piece, in order to generate the cut to the desired depth.

    The other way to do it is with a press, and a stepped broach. Which is a tool that looks like a chinese pagoda, or a christmas tree, in terms of having a series of stepped layers, each of which is an incrementally deeper cutting surface. So if you needed a square hole in something, perhaps .500 x .500 inches, you might drill a .475 hole, and then use a tool that starts out with the first layer being a .470 circle, and has 20 steps, with the last one being a .500 x .500 square. You place the round end in the hole through your work, put the entire setup in the press, and use the press to push the stepped broach through the work piece. Every level takes a progressively deeper and “more square” cut, and after you’ve pushed it all the way through, you have a square hole.

    Basically, it’s a pain in the ass, and this is why machinists all think that mechanical engineers should be forced to take at least one machining class, because otherwise they think square interior corners are really cool. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  9. CapitalistRoader Avatar
    CapitalistRoader

    Perlhaqr, thanks again. I’ve seen mortiser bits used for wood but knew it wasn’t possible in steel or probably even aluminum. I’m amazed that the machine can hold tolerances during this linear operation.

  10. perlhaqr Avatar
    perlhaqr

    CR: Heh, so am I! Imagine taking a wood chisel, in a really big piece of wood, with a hole drilled in it much larger than your chisel, and then just pushing the chisel down along the side of the hole, over and over, in order to progressively cut a squared off keyway. Think about what the tool would want to do, as it cut through the wood. (i.e.: dive into the material) Admittedly, they’re probably very shallow cuts, but given that it’s also a blind hole… Man.

    Actually, that’s a pretty good analogy for what that tool is doing. Only instead of being a wood chisel driven by a hammer, it’s a steel-working toolbit being moved by the drive motors of the machine.

  11. perlhaqr Avatar
    perlhaqr

    Simon: That looks like a pretty cool project. Are you guys actually up in Illinois? I’m in Albuquerque.

    Also, I don’t actually work as a machinist right now. I just went to school for it in one of my “I am so tired of working with computers” phases. I’m the systems administrator for one of the groups in the medical school at the local university right now.

    I’ve tried to leave computing three times. Each time, just as I’m finishing up, a friend of mine gets in touch and either makes me an offer I can’t refuse, or is desperate for help, or, well, both. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Nothing I’ve tried to leave computing for has been nearly as remunerative, sadly, so “I really need your help and I can pay you 5x what you can make doing that other thing” ends up being a pretty persuasive argument. And I’ve just had a long break, going to school, so I don’t completely hate it again at first… :-/