What did you do today?

[Captain I. Barton]

Finished setting up a third EMCO Compact 5 CNC lathe. Three of them have come up on the market in the last six months for absurdly low prices.

Yes they are "training" lathes but with the turret attachment and some previous experience they make great light-duty production machines for plastic, aluminum and stuff of that nature.

With this latest haul I have enough working boards and software copies on hand to keep the Ancient Technology running for awhile, if not "forever."

On the fence about upgrading them, if these jobs prove to be long-haul long term prospects a proper modern Turning Center is a better investment.

But for now, for the stuff I do, they work great and I can brag about owning three CNC turret-lathes.

[Stepside]

Chris
I did not take a lot of pictures of it assembled. It is just a dirty set of gears ect. Now it is a pile of parts waiting for polishing as well a few of the bushings need to be replaced. If the stars align, I will take some pictures as it progresses.
Pete

[Tim Clarke]

Stepside, we have GOT to have pictures. I think you need to start a post on this, it sound truly fascinating.

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

Yes! Needs it's own thread!

[Stepside]

Picked up my wife after a three day hospital visit. Machined a split collar so I could pull a splned arm off the shaft. This is part of the steering system of a 40 plus years old limited hydroplane. The parts and the Hydro have been n a shed untouche for at least 30 years.

[PStechPaul]

A neighbor was giving away a large pile of concrete pavers, so over the past few days John and I loaded them about 50-60 at a time in my Honda Fit, and unloaded them at my house. Probably close to 400 pavers, a good ton total:



I may use some of them for steps around the side of the house. Tibbs has been having trouble climbing the stairs in the house, but he was able to get around the back using these rough steps I cut into the dirt.

[bborr01]

Today I closed on my childhood family home. My mom passed away last summer and I am in charge of the estate. Kind of bittersweet selling a place that has been part of our family since 1963 but the time was here. The good news is that in all those years the area has been built up quite a bit and it brought a real good price. Glad to have that part of settling the estate over with. Even with using a realtor I probably spent a good 100 hours making repairs and doing other things that needed to be done to sell the place.

[Tim Clarke]

[QUOTE=bborr01;n1858649]Today I closed on my childhood family home. My mom passed away last summer and I am in charge of the estate.

I did the same thing in 2014.... Mom passed away at 98 and hadn't lived there for 3 years. Refused to consider any idea of clearing it out, fixing it up, or anything else. She said that Dad built it exactly perfect and it needed nothing. This was also in 1963. Well, it was all original except the living room was repainted once in the middle 1980's The outside wasn't bad, but I wish that I had spent only 100 hours dealing with the interior.

[Tungsten dipper]

Finished by house number sign. Made out of 1/8" acrylic for the base and 3/8" aluminum plate for the numbers. At the 2 o'clock position you can see where I welded the saw kerf closed so I could band saw the inside of the zero.

[Tim Clarke]

Finished by house number sign. Made out of 1/8" acrylic for the base and 3/8" aluminum plate for the numbers. At the 2 o'clock position you can see where I welded the saw kerf closed so I could band saw the inside of the zero.

How did you lay out the design? Templates? CAD? Looks sharp, I like it!

[Bob La Londe]

So far today I have made... two cups of coffee.

[Tungsten dipper]

How did you lay out the design? Templates? CAD? Looks sharp, I like it!

Thanks!
I used Photoshop, printed it to size then traced it on masonite, and the 3/8" aluminum plate. The typeface is American Typewriter. I first cut out 1/8 masonite templates of the numbers, to locate the mounting holes for the sign base and then for the plate to fly cut the face of the numbers in the mill vise. They where all cut with the vertical metal bandsaw, then finished with a belt sanders and hand files. No CNCs for me; I did it the old fashion way.

[Tim Clarke]

Thanks!
I used Photoshop, printed it to size then traced it on masonite, and the 3/8" aluminum plate. The typeface is American Typewriter. I first cut out 1/8 masonite templates of the numbers, to locate the mounting holes for the sign base and then for the plate to fly cut the face of the numbers in the mill vise. They where all cut with the vertical metal bandsaw, then finished with a belt sanders and hand files. No CNCs for me; I did it the old fashion way.

Thanks for the reply. I made some circa 1984 from wood, about 1 1/2" thick. I no longer live there, but the numbers are still there. Wish I could find the templates I used, but it looks like they're long gone.

[plastikosmd]

Time to start making the top link part that was missing from my Stratton lift. Copying some pics on the internet, I needed some 3/8 plate and channel.

Hit the scrapyard and found a 4” channel that was 8 ft long or a piece of 3” with some tabs welded in. Couldn’t bring myself to cut up the beautiful 4 inch piece so out came the torch and a grinder and an hour of wasted time to make a beautiful piece of 3 inch channel. (I have an issue hoarding steel, I always will tend to make do with the smallest possible junk piece so I can save the bigger pieces for that future project that never seems to come around LOL)





After drilling the mount holes, The next step is to mock up the top link bracket which Hass to be at an angle so that the tailgate can still be removed. Note, helper 2x4 to hold the tailgate at release point.

[plastikosmd]

More scrap, I cut a piece off those 3/8 plate and tacked it back to itself so I could double it up, marked out the piece that was needed and use the plasma to cut both pieces at once.



Trial fit, tailgate slides out nicely. By no means a professional fabricator but it turned out well thus far. Next to drill the through holes for mounting and weld it in place

[nickel-city-fab]

Finally got my cylinder square done to my satisfaction at this point in time. Less than .0001" in 5 inches from the surface plate. Worst case scenario, that works out to 4 seconds of arc. Now I have to find some appropriate wood and make a box for it. Total investment less than $40 including abrasives and the cylinder itself. I started another thread about it here:

https://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/forum/general/1858977-cylinder-is-now-square-close-enough