The New Hotness

Encouraged by the smooth running of the LM12UU drag knife mount, I chopped off another length of 12 mm shaft:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - sawing shaft — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – sawing shaft

The MicroMark Cut-off saw was barely up to the task; I must do something about its craptastic “vise”. In any event, the wet rags kept the shaft plenty cool and the ShopVac hose directly behind the motor sucked away all of the flying grit.

The reason I used an abrasive wheel: the shaft is case-hardened and the outer millimeter or two is hard enough to repel a carbide cutter:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - drilling shaft — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – drilling shaft

Fortunately, the middle remains soft enough to drill a hole for the collet pen holder, which I turned down to a uniform 8 mm (-ish) diameter:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - turning collet body — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – turning collet body

Slather JB Kwik epoxy along the threads, insert into the shaft, wipe off the excess, and it almost looks like a Real Product:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - finished body — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – finished body

The far end of the shaft recesses the collet a few millimeters to retain the spring around the pen body, which will also require a knurled ring around the outside so you (well, I) can tighten the collet around the pen tip.

Start the ring by center-drilling an absurdly long aluminum rod in the steady rest:

M12UU Collet Pen Holder - center drilling — M12UU Collet Pen Holder – center drilling

Although it’s not obvious, I cleaned up the OD before applying the knurling tool:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - knurling — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – knurling

For some unknown reason, it seemed like a Good Idea to knurl without the steady rest, perhaps to avoid deepening the ring where the jaws slide, but Tiny Lathe™ definitely wasn’t up to the challenge. The knurling wheels aren’t quite concentric on their bores and their shafts have plenty of play, so I got to watch the big live center and tailstock wobbulate as the rod turned.

With the steady rest back in place, drill out the rod to match the shaft’s 12 mm OD:

All my “metric” drilling uses hard-inch drills approximating the metric dimensions, of course, because USA.

Clean up the ring face, file a chamfer on the edge, and part it off:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - parting ring — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – parting ring

Turn some PVC pipe to a suitable length, slit one side so it can collapse to match the ring OD, wrap shimstock to protect those lovely knurls, and face off all the ugly:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - knurled ring facing — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – knurled ring facing

Tweak the drag knife’s solid model for a different spring from the collection and up the hole OD in the plate to clear the largest pen cartridge in the current collection:

Collet Holder - LM12UU - solid model — Collet Holder – LM12UU – solid model

Convince all the parts to fly in formation, then measure the spring rate:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - spring rate test — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – spring rate test

Which works out to be 128 g + 54 g/mm:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - test plot - overview — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – test plot – overview

I forgot the knurled ring must clear the screws and, ideally, the nyloc nuts. Which it does, after I carefully aligned each nut with a flat exactly tangent to the ring. Whew!

A closer look at the business end:

LM12UU Collet Pen Holder - test plot - detail — LM12UU Collet Pen Holder – test plot – detail

The shaft has 5 mm of travel, far more than enough for the MPCNC’s platform. Plotting at -1 mm applies 180 g of downforce; the test pattern shown above varies the depth from 0.0 mm in steps of -0.1 mm; anything beyond -0.2 mm gets plenty of ink.

Now I have a pen holder, a diamond scribe, and a drag knife with (almost) exactly the same “tool offset” from the alignment camera, thereby eliminating an opportunity to screw up.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// Collet pen cartridge holder using LM12UU linear bearing
	// Ed Nisley KE4ZNU – 2019-04-26
	// 2019-06 Adapted from LM12UU drag knife holder

	Layout = "Build"; // [Build, Show, Puck, Mount, Plate]

	/* [Extrusion] */

	ThreadThick = 0.25; // [0.20, 0.25]
	ThreadWidth = 0.40; // [0.40]

	/* [Hidden] */

	Protrusion = 0.1; // [0.01, 0.1]

	HoleWindage = 0.2;

	inch = 25.4;

	function IntegerMultiple(Size,Unit) = Unit * ceil(Size / Unit);

	ID = 0;
	OD = 1;
	LENGTH = 2;

	//- Adjust hole diameter to make the size come out right

	module PolyCyl(Dia,Height,ForceSides=0) { // based on nophead's polyholes
	Sides = (ForceSides != 0) ? ForceSides : (ceil(Dia) + 2);
	FixDia = Dia / cos(180/Sides);
	cylinder(r=(FixDia + HoleWindage)/2,h=Height,$fn=Sides);
	}

	//- Dimensions

	// Basic shape of DW660 snout fitting into the holder
	// Lip goes upward to lock into MPCNC mount

	Snout = [44.6,50.0,9.6]; // LENGTH = ID height
	Lip = 4.0; // height of lip at end of snout

	// Holder & suchlike

	Spring = [8.8,10.0,3*ThreadThick]; // compression spring loading knife blade

	PenShaft = 4.5; // hole to pass pen cartridge

	WallThick = 4.0; // minimum thickness / width

	Screw = [4.0,8.5,25.0]; // thread ID, washer OD, length

	Insert = [4.0,6.0,10.0]; // brass insert

	Bearing = [12.0,21.0,30.0]; // linear bearing body

	Plate = [PenShaft,Snout[OD] – WallThick,WallThick]; // spring reaction plate

	echo(str("Plate: ",Plate));

	SpringSeat = [0.56,7.2,2*ThreadThick]; // wire = ID, coil = OD, seat depth = length

	PuckOAL = max(Bearing[LENGTH],(Snout[LENGTH] + Lip)); // total height of DW660 fitting
	echo(str("PuckOAL: ",PuckOAL));
	Key = [Snout[ID],25.7,(Snout[LENGTH] + Lip)]; // rectangular key

	NumScrews = 3;

	//ScrewBCD = 2.0*(Bearing[OD]/2 + Insert[OD]/2 + WallThick);
	ScrewBCD = (Snout[ID] + Bearing[OD])/2;
	echo(str("Screw BCD: ",ScrewBCD));

	NumSides = 9*4; // cylinder facets (multiple of 3 for lathe trimming)

	module DW660Puck() {

	translate([0,0,PuckOAL])
	rotate([180,0,0]) {
	cylinder(d=Snout[OD],h=Lip/2,$fn=NumSides);
	translate([0,0,Lip/2])
	cylinder(d1=Snout[OD],d2=Snout[ID],h=Lip/2,$fn=NumSides);
	cylinder(d=Snout[ID],h=(Snout[LENGTH] + Lip),$fn=NumSides);
	translate([0,0,(Snout[LENGTH] + Lip) – Protrusion])
	cylinder(d1=Snout[ID],d2=2*WallThick + Bearing[OD],h=PuckOAL – (Snout[LENGTH] + Lip),$fn=NumSides);
	intersection() {
	translate([0,0,0*Lip + Key.z/2])
	cube(Key,center=true);
	cylinder(d=Snout[OD],h=Lip + Key.z,$fn=NumSides);
	}
	}
	}

	module MountBase() {

	difference() {
	DW660Puck();

	translate([0,0,-Protrusion]) // bearing
	PolyCyl(Bearing[OD],2*PuckOAL,NumSides);

	for (i=[0:NumScrews – 1]) // clamp screws
	rotate(i*360/NumScrews)
	translate([ScrewBCD/2,0,-Protrusion])
	rotate(180/8)
	PolyCyl(Insert[OD],2*PuckOAL,8);
	}
	}

	module SpringPlate() {
	difference() {
	cylinder(d=Plate[OD],h=Plate[LENGTH],$fn=NumSides);

	translate([0,0,-Protrusion]) // pen cartridge hole
	PolyCyl(PenShaft,2*Plate[LENGTH],NumSides);

	translate([0,0,Plate[LENGTH] – Spring[LENGTH]]) // spring retaining recess
	PolyCyl(Spring[OD],Spring[LENGTH] + Protrusion,NumSides);

	for (i=[0:NumScrews – 1]) // clamp screws
	rotate(i*360/NumScrews)
	translate([ScrewBCD/2,0,-Protrusion])
	rotate(180/8)
	PolyCyl(Screw[ID],2*PuckOAL,8);

	if (false)
	for (i=[0:NumScrews – 1]) // coil positioning recess
	rotate(i*360/NumScrews)
	translate([ScrewBCD/2,0,-Protrusion])
	rotate(180/8)
	PolyCyl(SpringSeat[OD],SpringSeat[LENGTH] + Protrusion,8);

	}
	}

	//—–
	// Build it

	if (Layout == "Puck")
	DW660Puck();

	if (Layout == "Plate")
	SpringPlate();

	if (Layout == "Mount")
	MountBase();

	if (Layout == "Show") {
	MountBase();
	translate([0,0,1.6*PuckOAL])
	rotate([180,0,0])
	SpringPlate();
	}

	if (Layout == "Build") {
	translate([0,Snout[OD]/2,PuckOAL])
	rotate([180,0,0])
	MountBase();
	translate([0,-Snout[OD]/2,0])
	SpringPlate();
	}

view raw Collet Holder – LM12UU.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The New Hotness

MPCNC Collet Pen Holder: LM12UU Edition