Some More CNC Projects

[twistedfuse]

Nice gears.

Mark is right on the money, Kero is usually used although now there are many synthetic compounds that can be used also and using a slower speed means the gummier aluminums will heat up and stick to the cutter, you want cooler cutting that throws chips off the cut so you need to experiment to get the best of both worlds.

The cutter getting clogged could also be causing your resonance too, however it is something you should really find the source of the issue with as resonance will cause early fatigue in cutters and your machine. It could be caused by the small cutter used, not having your z axis properly trammed or not having a stiff enough gantry. Its not a huge issue with wood but if you are looking at doing aluminum from time to time i would spend a few hours figuring out where majority come from.

Either way its definitely a good start, those gears are great and look forward to more pictures of your projects.

[rodm]

This is a proof of concept and pleased it worked. There are 5 small gears holding the ring gear in place and a drive gear to move the levers that open the shutters.
I plan on making this in brass and using it as a viewing hole for the front door.

[warrick]

Way too cool Rod


Warrick

[rusel]

The mechanics of it are just beautiful.
How big is it?
Russsell

[rodm]

The centre is 77mm and outside 250mm wide
I have a 50 cent coin in this photo for perspective.

[RayG]

Hi Rod,

Beautiful design and looks great

Regards
Ray

[Bob Willson]

The centre is 77mm and outside 250mm wide
I have a 50 cent coin in this photo for perspective.

That looks beautiful Rod. Now you will need to scale it down a lot, because if that is a 50c coin then small children will be able to stick their heads through it. (One head per child unless acting in an executionary role).

Sharpen up the edges a bit and it would do well in income for unsophisticated haircuts as well.

[SawDustSniffer]

I plan on making this in brass and using it as a viewing hole for the front door.

that pretty cool and original , a nice sized looking glass

[rodm]

Ken,
It is not an original idea of mine. There are quite a few of these around on the internet. Have a look here.

[twistedfuse]

Great work Rod. Saw one of these in brass on the mechmate site. Looked great so cannot wait to see yours done in brass. Looks like you re-hashed the design a little or was this a readily available dxf?

Daniel

[rodm]

Hi Daniel,
There are a couple of dxf files around for this but I got the earleir one and it had some problems - there is a later version which may be ok.

Anyway I played around with what I had, resized, edited a few components after seeing the tool cutouts in Aspire and it was done. There was some really wierd things on the file and in one instance it was cutting two outside tool paths to something that wasn't there. It may have been Aspire but given the other problems it was probably the file.

With this happening I thought I would cut it in dumpster diving retrieved material rather than go straight to brass. I am now stalling on the brass as it required a 1mm cutter to get to the bottom of those teeth in the gears. I don't think a 1mm cutter will survive in brass for too long even if I did a 3mm bit pass first to clear the way. Any thoughts other than scaling it larger for a bigger cutter to fit in.

[spidey4fun]

Very cool Rod. might have to try draw this up.

Brad.

[SawDustSniffer]

Ken,
It is not an original idea of mine. There are quite a few of these around on the internet. Have a look here.

but how many miles are those front doors apart ? its original

[twistedfuse]

Well done then. Its amazing how many files out there have some weird little discrepancies. Its really nice items like these that makes me wish my machine was done and running again. (

As for the cutter issue, i'm not sure about how to fit the smaller cutter in. Scaling teeth or changing teeth style to something like square teeth, or being able to index the bit vertically with a vbit is all i can think of this early. I will have to sit on it and think but i am sure there is a way.

Daniel

[spidey4fun]

mechanical iris

Some plans.

Brad.