Mafreto disassembly

Resetting the anodes for the B&S turret.

The table disassembly is progressing  In this video I finish removing the table from the X axis slide.

Removed the plates bolted to the bottom side of the bed.  Unfortunately the iPhone 6 produced a very jittery video.   I don't know if it was due to the heat, or the fact that I was using a Bluetooth headset to get the audio.   More testing is in order.  But I can't rely on it for the only video.

The milling table and its x slide waiting to go back in the derust tank.

Funky sand and setting up to de rust the milling table

Tried 5% western bentonite in what I tough was blow sand.  It burned.  Tire chuck is for scale.

This bar was made by casting aluminum into a shock absorber tube surrounded by the above sand.  I slit the tube down the side.  The gap sprung open a bit and my cut was nt the best so I tied the tube shut with wire and wrapped it with aluminum foil.   It was a bit of chore to remove the aluminum that escaped anyway.  But once it was gone the tube came off easy enough.  Ready for reuse.   At some point I should try this again and take more care cutting the tube open.

I may use this bit of 2" stock to create a tool for setting the lathe tool height.

Repurposing one of my fancy goldfish tanks for de rusting the milling table.   Had a bit of crud in the valve but that was easily cleaned while it was filling.

120 gallons of water and 7.5 cups of calcium carbonate aka washing soda.  In time the water will clear.   The table is suspended from the chain.   Sections of steel fence posts are suspended from the electrical conduit.  Initially trying 10 amps.  It that is too much I can swap out the charger for a 6 amp.

To be continued.

The amp meter on the battery charger has been missing for a few decades so I scavenged on off a junked lawn tractor and put it inline.

I was tempted to make a time lapse of the process but apple recently replaced the battery on my iPhone 6 which I wanted to use.  It took too long to restore and upgrade the phone.  Missed the beginning which is interesting so maybe  next time.

This is a shot from the morning of the next day.   I have suspended the table from the cherry picker so I can pull it up to check progress.

Notice that bubbles have mostly pushed the scum away from the area over the table.

Order DTI stands off amazon.

Ordered these

Got these which I am returning.

Update:  A return has been started and the item ordered is not on amazon at this time.

Youtube Strangeness

A page with SWDweb's video and comments for "My Classic Car" from some years ago.

Master Mill Mounting and first chips.

I have been toying with Word Press.  Maybe moving there.

Motor for the sand snake ?

Yeah its sort of weird to bring this up when I am so close to first chips on the Master Mill. But someone mentioned them on "Paul's Garage" and I figured it would be a good time to look it over. Now that the motor I bought for my sand processor has made my lathe happy I need to find another motor.   Dug out the pool pump I stashed.   Its 115V 3450.      Have to pull the pump and  other plastic off it to see if its an enclosed motor.  I doubt an open frame motor would last long in this application.    If its enclosed I will think about speed reduction or keep looking.

Free does have merit

I was keeping this pump for pond use.  They are not especially efficient pumps energy wise.   The idea was to use it as a booster pump to increase the flow over a water fall when desired.  Aka viewing and impressing friends and neighbors.   To that end I will be trying to use it without unreversible modifications and store the pump parts for later use.

Master Mill is nearly ready to test

The pulley is complete with the exception of set screws aka grub screws.

To cut the keyway I mounted a sharpened woodruff key in a boring bar and broached it by moving the lathe carriage. Lathe motor off.

There are a few blemishes where I did not machine deep enough to get past the aluminum casting shrinkage.  It is better to have the pulley strong and massive than have a perfect complexion.

The plan is to try it without cutting grooves for the poly V belt.  This is the one borrow from the air compressor.  The pulley was sized to make the belt work.  It is approximately 10 inches.

The belt is riding a bit to the inward side of the pulley.  I think I can fix that by moving the motor a bit left.

The motor pulley is also a flywheel and a cooling fan.    It may look funny but without it the motor may overheat.

What's left is this.

• Drill and tap pulley for 2 set screws
• Clean up the flash in the 6 holes.  Sadly it is too large to bolt to the faceplate on the lathe.  It will hit the ways.
• Cut and mount wood to cover the top of the electronics mount cast earlier.   I read that the heat sink should not be grounded.
• Tighten up the column bolts.  Check all bolts.
• 2X check that everything is rotating in the right direction and will not unscrew itself.  I may have to reverse the input shaft in the mill so it comes out the other side.  That or put a set screw in the motor pulley/flywheel.   
• Cable strain reliefs.

Past that everything is cosmetic but the electronics may benefit from a cover and a fan.

Machining the 10 inch Master Mill Pulley

Started machining the pulley today.   So far I have finished the one side. Happy enough with the finish and centering given I have not yet replaced the lathe's power feed and I did not use the 4 jaw chuck.

Here cleanup has ben done on the other side.   Cut the riser off with a parting tool but here is still a stub that can be faced off if it is not needed as part of the hub.   There are a few spots where I did not machine down past small areas of shrinkage.  This can be done if desired after it is a working part.  The same goes for cleaning up the six holes.

EDIT : A Mistake :  I chucked the pulley by the hub on the flat side.   It was too close to the center and would not stay in alignment especially with cardboard shims between the chuck and hub.   Live and learn.

Now comes the important stuff.  Cutting the hole and keyway along with cutting the rim down to size

Successfull Tenn Inch Pulley Cast

This is a pulley for the Master Mill.  I created this pattern and after 2 attempts at molding it gave up.   Today I gave it another try and although I still had some problems with the holes in the disc it resulted in what seems to be a useable casting.  It rings like a bell.

I did not use any fancy gating because I knew I had little or no aluminum to spare.   A small pouring basin feed the sprue which fed the gate.   When I did the pour the metal entered the mold very slowly.

I was thinking I made the gate larger than what you see here. The ruler in the above images is not useful.  A better size indication is given by comparing the gate to the pulley rim which is about 1 1/8" wide.

Whatever the cause it may have been fortuitous in that it slowed the molten metal when it filled the fragile mold.   Need to work on my sand's green strength.

I am starting to think that if you can't snap the gate off after casting its too large.  Yeah that too much of a generality but it is something to think about.

Tomorrow we clean up the casting.  The pulley as cast is nearer 11 inches but that is with the draft.  Some meat will have to be removed from the rim to get the belt I have borrowed from my air compressor to fit.

Perlite and Sodium Silicate Cake

After about a week it has sort of dried.  Some is still soft so I opted to bake it in the burnout oven at aluminum casting temperature 740C in this case

It came out rock hard or close to it.

Now I need to do some experiments.  Make up samples with variations.

These come to mind:

1:   I want to make channels to lay the coils in.  Preferably with a lip to keep the coils from dropping out.  This eliminates the need for retaining wires.    In this test I will try using a wood former embedded in the mix.  The idea is that the wood will turn to ash as the SS bakes.    Now the actual furnace will be made with new SS and not require baking to set.   I will have to provide some initial heat to burn out the wood.    Styrofoam might be melted out with a torch.  So that may be a better choice.

2. Add silica flour to the sodium silicate.   Not sure what this will do have some ideas but will not put them down here.  Just have to see.

3. Try curing the old SS in a bucket of C02 for a few days.   Try thinning out the SS with water.  This batch is very thick.

Useing what I have on hand

This one sat in the queue a while.  It was written prior to the two motor posts. 

Figured out the tredmill motor uses a J profile or PJ belt.  Going with a 34 inch for a 7 inch pulley.

But the air compressor has a 40 in PJ belt and that could be used with a larger pulley.

Used the "Design IQ 3" program to figure out what size pulley I needed to make it work.

I selected a slide type belt adjust instead of what I have which is a pivot.  By using the slide I can specify the belt size and let the program tell me the spacing.  I adjusted the pulley size to get the desired belt length and pulley spacing. The belt adjustment is only half an inch.  So I am casting a 12 inch pulley and will turn it down till the belt fits nicely.  The program does not fully support imperial so its best to work in metric. AKA mm.

The pattern is two layers of plywood and spruce hub sandwiched together.   Layers were aligned with a dowel through the center.   My clamps did not have enough reach so I improvised.

ZNext I will attach it to the wood lathe's face plate and refine the edges for draft. I already hit them with the belt sander but they need to be better. For some reason I can not turn underline off.

Leaning against the bench there is a bit of plywood with UP (upside down).  Behind that plywood is the MDF I was planning to use.  Unfortunately I forgot where I had seen it.   Strange that it showed up here.

When I lived the Colorado I had a nearly endless supply of MDF and laminated covered material tossed out by cabinet shops.   Miss that.



Unfortunately my crucible was too small to pour this pulley even after I lightened it.   Plan B is to use an aluminum hub with a wood disk and rim.