Tag: Mini-lathe

Tweaking an LMS 5200 Mini-Lathe

NuTone 8663RP Bathroom Vent Fan: Effective Repair
My high hopes for the UHMW bushing supporting the impeller lasted the better part of a day, because direct contact between the impeller and the motor bearing produced an absurdly loud and slowly pulsating rumble:

Bath Vent Fan – bushing installed

My hope that the UHMW would wear into a quieter configuration lasted a week …

Back in the Basement Shop, some free-air tinkering showed the impeller produced enough suction to pull itself downward along the shaft and jam itself firmly against the motor frame. My initial thought of putting a lock ring around the shaft to support the impeller turned out to be absolutely right.

So, make a small ring:

Bath Vent Fan – small lock ring – c-drill

With a 4-40 setscrew in its side, perched atop the impeller for scale:

Bath Vent Fan – small lock ring – size

It just barely fits between the impeller and the motor frame:

Bath Vent Fan – small lock ring – installed

This reduced the noise, but the hole in the impeller has worn enough to let it rotate on the shaft and the rumble continued unabated. The correct way to fix this evidently requires a mount clamped to both the shaft and the impeller.

Fast-forward a day …

A careful look at the impeller shows seven radial ribs, probably to reduce the likelihood of harmonic vibrations. After a bit of dithering, I decided not to worry about an off-balance layout, so the screws sit on a 9 mm radius at ±102.9° = 2 × 360°/7 from a screw directly across from the setscrew in another slice from the 1 inch aluminum rod:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – tapping

Centered on the disk and using LinuxCNC’s polar notation, the hole positions are:
```
G0 @9.0 ^-90
G0 @9.0 ^[-90+102.9]
G0 @9.0 ^[-90-102.9]
```
As usual, I jogged the drill downward while slobbering cutting fluid. I loves me some good manual CNC action.

Put the mount on a 1/4 inch tube, stick it into the impeller, and transfer-punch the screw holes:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – impeller marking

Apparently, some years ago I’d cut three screws to just about exactly the correct length:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – test fit – bottom

I knew I kept them around for some good reason!

The 9 mm radius just barely fits the screw heads between the ribs:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – test fit – top

Some Dremel cutoff wheel action extended the motor shaft flat to let the setscrew rest on the bottom end:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – shaft flat

Then it all fit together:

Bath Vent Fan – mount ring – installed

The fan now emits a constant whoosh, rather than a pulsating rumble, minus all the annoying overtones. It could be quieter, but it never was, so we can declare victory and move on.

Dropping fifty bucks on a replacement fan + impeller unit ~~would~~ might also solve the problem, but it just seems wrong to throw all that hardware in the trash.

And, despite making two passes at the problem before coming up with a workable solution, I think that’s the only way (for me, anyhow) to get from “not working” to “good as it ever was”, given that I didn’t quite understand the whole problem or believe the solution at the start.

But it should be painfully obvious why I don’t do Repair Cafe gigs …
2019-08-08
Shower Curtain Magnet Anchors

Back in the day, bathtubs had a porcelain coating over a cast-iron carcass, so embedding little magnets in shower curtains worked perfectly to keep the loose ends from billowing out of the tub. Surprisingly, even here in the future, with plastic bathtubs ruling the land, some shower curtains still have magnets. The mud-job tile walls of shower stall in the Black Bathroom have nary a trace of iron, but we though I could add ferrous targets for a new shower curtain, thusly:

Shower Curtain Anchor – installed

The magnet lives inside a heat-sealed disk, so it’s (more-or-less) isolated from the water. As you’d expect, it’s a cheap ceramic magnet, not a high-performance neodymium super magnet, with no more strength than absolutely necessary to work under the most ideal of conditions.

My anchors must also be waterproof, firmly attached, non-marking, easily removable, and no more ugly than absolutely necessary. The general idea is to slice the bottom from a pill bottle, entomb a thin steel disk in epoxy, and attach to the tile with a patch of outdoor-rated foam tape.

So, we begin …

Cutting a narrow ring from a pill bottle requires a collet around the whole circumference, which started life as some sort of stout aluminum pole:

Shower Curtain Anchor – cutting tube stock

Bore out the inside, with a small step to locate the bottle:

Shower Curtain Anchor – boring fixture

Clean up the outside, just for pretty:

Shower Curtain Anchor – turning fixture OD

Slit the fixture to let it collapse around the bottle, then chuck up the first victim with support from a conveniently sized drill chuck in the tailstock:

Shower Curtain Anchor – cutting bottle

I did a better job of cutting the second bottle to the proper length:

Shower Curtain Anchor – parting base

Nibble disks from sheet metal, half-fill the bottle bottoms with steel-filled (and, thus, magnetic!) JB Weld epoxy, insert disks, add sufficient epoxy to cover the evidence:

Shower Curtain Anchor – epoxy curing

Fast-forward to the next day, punch out two disks of double-sided foam tape:

Shower Curtain Anchor – adhesive foam

Affix, install, and it’s all good.

Actually, it’s not. The ceramic magnets are so weak they don’t hold the curtain nearly well enough to satisfy me. The next anchor iteration should have embedded neodymium magnets to attract the curtain’s crappy ceramic magnets, but this is Good Enough™ for now.

2019-07-26
Primitive Screwheads

Painting the patio railing required removing the short section on the garage, which stalled with a thoroughly galled / corroded nut on the 2 inch bolt going through the wall. Deploying a Dremel slitting wheel and bashing the slit open with a cold chisel saved the day, as shown in this staged reenactment:

Patio railing – square head bolt – extraction

It seems square head bolts have gone out of fashion, at least in the 3/8-16 size seen here, over the last half century:

Patio railing – square head bolts

I reused the lag screw with no qualms at all.

The local fastener emporium had square bolts ranging upward from 3/4-10, which wasn’t much help. Amazon has ’em, if you spend enough time rummaging around in the debris from its search engine, at a buck apiece in lots of ten. Fortunately, a local big-box home repair store had 3/8-16 hex head steel bolts and square nuts, so I needn’t start from scratch.

Start by turning off the hex head:

Patio railing – square head bolt – removing hex head

Thread the end, starting in the lathe and ending with a die turned just barely enough to accept the nut:

Patio railing – square head bolt – threading

Epoxy the nut in place and sand it to rough up the surface finish enough to hold the primer:

Patio railing – square head bolt – lineup

Yeah, that’s a nasty little zit. Fortunately, nobody will ever notice.

Prime & paint the railing, affix it to the garage wall, then prime & paint the bolt:

Patio railing – square head bolt – installed

Thing looks like it grew there; tell nobody about the zit.

The yellow blotches decorating the shiny black paint come from the pine trees across the driveway. The first day of pine pollen season corresponded to the second day I intended to paint; the dust clouds were a wonder to behold.

Bonus Quality Shop Time!

The far end of the railing around the patio has a bracket against the house siding with a hole intended for a 1/4 inch bolt they never installed, perhaps because there’s no way to maneuver a bolt into the space available.

The threads on the 3/8-16 bolt may be wrecked, but turning the shank down to 1/4 inch isn’t any big deal:

Patio railing – fake bolt – thinning shank

Part off the head with a stub just long enough to fit into the bracket, epoxy that sucker into the hole, and paint it black:

Patio railing – fake bolt – installed

The square post on the left goes down to an anchor in the concrete patio, the railing is welded to a 4 inch column a foot away, and the end of the railing isn’t going anywhere; the fake bolt is purely for show.

And, yes, the dust atop the railing is more pollen from the pine trees responsible for the weird green-yellow reflections on the vertical surfaces.

No boomstick required!

2019-06-24

MPCNC Drag Knife: Ground Shaft in LM12UU Bearing

The 12 mm drag knife holder on the left slides nicely in an LM12UU bearing:

Drag Knife holders - detail — Drag Knife holders – detail

However, its aluminum body isn’t really intended as a bearing surface and it extends only halfway through the LM12UU, so I finally got around to modifying the 11.5 mm body on the right to fit into a section of 12 mm ground shaft:

Drag Knife - turning 11.5 mm body to 10 mm — Drag Knife – turning 11.5 mm body to 10 mm

The general idea is to turn the body down to 10 mm OD; the picture shows the first pass over the nose after turning the far end down and removing the flange in the process. Exact concentricity of both ends isn’t important (it gets epoxied into a 10 mm hole through the 12 mm ground shaft), but it came out rather pretty:

Drag Knife - 11.5 mm body - turned to 10 mm — Drag Knife – 11.5 mm body – turned to 10 mm

The ground shaft started as a pen holder:

DW660 Pen Holder - ground shaft — DW660 Pen Holder – ground shaft

I knocked off the ring and bored the interior to fit the 10 mm knife body. The large end of the existing bore came from a 25/64 inch = 9.92 mm drill, so it was just shy of 10.0 mm, and I drilled the small end upward from 0.33 inch = 8.4 mm.

The smallest trio of a new set of cheap carbide boring bars allegedly went into a 5/16 inch = 7.9 mm bore, but I had to file the bar body down and diamond-file more end relief into the carbide for clearance inside the drilled hole:

I blued the bit, kissed it against the drilled bore, filed off whatever wasn’t blued, and iterated until the carbide edge started cutting. Sissy cuts all the way, with no pix to show for all the flailing around.

Epoxying the turned-down drag knife body into the shaft: anticlimactic.

The solid model features a stylin’ tapered snout:

Drag Knife LM12UU holder - tapered end — Drag Knife LM12UU holder – tapered end

Which gets an LM12UU bearing rammed into place:

Drag Knife - LM12UU holder - inserting bearing — Drag Knife – LM12UU holder – inserting bearing

The steel block leaves the bearing flush with the plastic surface, rather than having it continue onward and indent itself into the wood; I can learn from my mistakes.

The new idea: a single spring pressing the knife holder downward, reacting against a fixed plastic plate:

Drag Knife - LM12UU ground shaft - assembled — Drag Knife – LM12UU ground shaft – assembled

Unlike the previous design, the upper plate doesn’t move, so there’s no problem caused by sliding along the screw threads. I should run nylock nuts up against the plate to keep it in place, stiffen the structure, and provide some friction to keep the screws from loosening.

The top of the knife holder now has a boss anchoring the spring:

Drag Knife - turning spring recess — Drag Knife – turning spring recess

As you’d expect, the ground shaft slides wonderfully in the bearing, because that’s what it’s designed to do, and the knife has essentially zero stiction and friction at any point along the bearing, which is exactly what I wanted.

The spring, from the same assortment as all the others, has a 48 g/mm rate.

The OpenSCAD source code as a GitHub Gist:

	// Drag Knife Holder using LM12UU linear bearing
	// Ed Nisley KE4ZNU – 2019-04-26
	// 2019-06-01 Taper the nose

	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

	// Knife holder & suchlike

	KnifeBody = [12.0,18.0,2.0]; // body OD, flange OD, flange thickness

	Spring = [9.5,10.0,3*ThreadThick]; // compression spring loading knife blade

	PinAccess = 4.0; // hole to reach knife ejection pin

	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 = [PinAccess,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;

	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]) // ejection pin hole
	PolyCyl(PinAccess,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 Drag Knife LM12UU holder.scad hosted with ❤ by GitHub

2019-06-18

MPCNC Drag Knife: PETG Linear Bearing
Having reasonable success using a 12 mm hole bored in a 3D printed mount for the nice drag knife holder on the left, I thought I’d try the same trick for the raw aluminum holder on the right side:

Drag Knife holders – detail

The 11.5 mm body is long enough to justify making a longer holder with more bearing surface:

Drag Knife Holder – 11.5 mm body – Slic3r preview

Slicing with four perimeter threads lays down enough reasonably solid plastic to bore the central hole to a nice sliding fit:

Drag Knife – 11.5 mm body – boring

The top disk gets bored to a snug press fit around the flange and upper body:

Drag Knife – 11.5 mm body – flange boring

Assemble with springs and it pretty much works:

Drag Knife – hexagon depth setting

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work particularly well, because the two screws tightening the MPCNC’s DW660 tool holder (the black band) can apply enough force to deform the PETG mount and lock the drag knife body in the bore, while not being quite tight enough to prevent the mount from moving.

I think the holder for the black knife (on the left) worked better, because:
- The anodized surface is much smoother & slipperier
- The body is shorter, so less friction
In any event, I reached a sufficiently happy compromise for some heavy paper / light cardboard test shapes, but a PETG bearing won’t suffice for dependable drag knife cuttery.

Back to the laboratory …
2019-05-24
Improved Shoelace Ferrule Aglets

After considerable evaluation, the Customer decided the shoelaces were still too long and said the hex-crimped ferrules were entirely too rough and tended to snag on things. This time, I prepared the ferrules by chucking them in the lathe:

Ferrule – original flange

The steel rod inside the ferrule encourages it to remain round and not collapse while I’m filing off the flange that normally holds the plastic strain-relief doodad:

Ferrule – reshaped flange

I snipped another half inch off each end of the laces and crimped on the prepared ferrules:

Shoelace ferrule aglets

Which were definitely too jaggy, so they now sport an epoxy coat:

Ferrule aglets – epoxy coat

Alas, JB Kwik epoxy has a pot life measured in minutes, so the last ferrule looks a bit lumpy. They seem to work fine and the Customer is happy with the results.

Memo to Self: Next time, dunk the ferrules in a pot of slow-curing JB Weld and let them drain overnight.

2019-03-20
Minilathe MT3 Spindle Collet Fitting

I’ve used the LMS set of inch-size MT3 spindle collets on occasion, but releasing them required an unseemly amount of drawbar battering. It recently occurred to me to check their fit in the spindle taper:

Minilathe – MT3 collet – taper test

Huh.

The only place they touch the spindle is right around the base, so it’s no wonder they clamp poorly and release grudgingly. I tried several others with the same result.

Cross-checking shows a much closer fit along the entire length of the dead center, so it’s not the spindle’s fault:

Minilathe – Dead Center – MT3 taper check

Stipulated: we’re not talking toolroom precision here

I set the collets on centers:

Minilathe – MT3 collet – drive setup

And proceeded to file away the offending section to move the clamping force closer to the business end of the collet:

Minilathe – MT3 collet – filed result

I did the small collets, the ones I’m most likely to need, and left the big ones for another rainy day.

They don’t have much clamping range and seem good only for exact-inch-size rods.

I should lay in a stock of ER16 and maybe ER32 collets for small stuff.

2019-01-16