407 replies to this topic

[firstgencrx]

Just out of curiosity, do you have to individually measure and punch each hole to be drilled? Or do you simply use adjustments on your equipment that help keep everything exact?

Either way, that's a lot of drilling!

The milling machine I use has a DRO (digital read-out) on it that allows me to know exactly where I am within 0.0002 inches. What I do is move my table to the location I want to be and then I can drill. In the case of the rotory table used in the picture, I crank it to my next degree location and drill. The rotory table is only repeatable to about 15 arc seconds, which is close enough for this job.

I do not need a puch because I use cobalt split point stub drills for my holes. Some people will center drill their location before drilling, but with the split point stub, you can start your hole with just the drill bit. The bit is very short and stiff so it does not wander when starting. The machine is also very ridgid and almost perfectly square to the work piece. When using the split point, you get a hole that is repeatable to within 2 thou or so of your desired location all day long. Combine that with a good Albright keyless chuck (these chucks are made in west Germany and cost over 200 bucks!) and you can change tools pretty quickly with very high accuracy.

Good questions!

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 6:

Today I made little progress due to some unforeseen interuptions the first half of the day, but in the late afternoon, I did make some progress on the pillow bearing mounts. The pillow bearing mounts are made up of a 3/8" top plate, and a 1/2" bottom plate that hold the pillow bearing by sandwiching it between the plates. Hard to tell what I am talking about from todays progress photos, but tomorrow you will understand more when you see them with holes. I first rough them out of a larger piece of aluminum plate.



Once they are rough cut from the larger plate, I machine all six sides to square them up and bring them down to their intended size. Here I am using the mill to machine one edge on 4 parts at once. The vice is holding two parts per side, hard to tell because the machined surface makes the seam disapear.



Only two sides done on all the parts for tonights progress, but tomorrow I should finish all of these.



On something completely different, a small little black kitty with a white stripe down its back came wandering into the yard this evening. My long hair white Bhirman cat thought it would be fun to chase it around the yard. Well, you get the picture. Cats look funny as hell when you give them a bath. The house is going to smell funny for at least a week or so.

Take care all!

David

[firstgencrx]

Hey everybody! Great News!!!!!!

I bought a CNC today!!! It's a used one, but still in great shape!!! I pick it up in a couple of days. I will show picks when I get it home.

This is going to reduce my stress SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much when making my caster/camber plates. Plus they will be even better!!

Now back to the grind.

Take care all.

David

[funkmaster]

you bought a CNC machine?! Who made it? My dad worked for Cincinnati Milacron for 25 years.
Some of those machines cost like $100,000+!!!

Is your new machince computer controlled?

[firstgencrx]

you bought a CNC machine?! Who made it? My dad worked for Cincinnati Milacron for 25 years.
Some of those machines cost like $100,000+!!!

Is your new machince computer controlled?

It is computer controlled, but the machine is very small and modest. A machine like this new would only run about $16,000 (I paid a LOT less). The controll system is made by the Anilam group. They are famous for their DRO's. Only two axis of control and it is based on the series 1 bridgeport universal. The mill is one of the offshore bridgeport copies. The machine is going to help out so much on the things I want to make for myself and others.

Take care,

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 7:

Opps! Made a boo-boo.
Luckly it is not a big one. Whew!!

So I'm having fun today enjoying listening to public radio while I finish squaring up the the pillow bearing mounts. Then I start to drill and tap them and........ what the f**k? Why are these damn tapped holes so close to the edge of the part? I made the bottom plates to short. D'oh!



Well lets see, I need to make a post, so while I am hauling ASS remaking these plates to try and play catch up, I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of my rotisserie. People have been asking me for the design since I first posted to the list. But to be honest, I built this thing from what was laying around in the yard and the fuzzy pictures in my own head. No, really.

It is better to see this thing in person to get an idea of how completely over the top it is. Lots of time, energy, and materials is how I best describe it. I built it to be universal so it would fit any car. When I was finished, I was so tired of working on it, I didn't even want to paint it! Someday I will paint it.

Here is a good view of the end:



And one from the side; in this shot you can see how it's length can be changed:



A shot of the pivot from inside the rotisserie:



The top crank that adjusts where the pivot point is located relative to the car. This is handy because as you add or remove stuff, the center of gravity changes:



A good shot of the pivot from behind:



Up close of how the pivot is mounted to the sliding mechanism:



And of course the safty! This prevents the car from falling in the event the hydraulic cylinders should spring a leak!



A shot of how the grip arm is bolted to the stand:



And finally, how the one arm connects (grips) to the car. I use the bumper mounting locations, both front and back to mount the car to the rotisserie. This one is connected to the rear:



Hope everyone liked the show. I will be back tomorrow with more progress on the CC Plates!

Take care,

David

[kakabox]

I thought it would be nice to post some pictures of my rotisserie.

...WOW! Very nice! Thank you for posting pics.

What's the max height of the car from the floor when on the rotisserie and rotated 90 degs?

[firstgencrx]

...WOW! Very nice! Thank you for posting pics.

What's the max height of the car from the floor when on the rotisserie and rotated 90 degs?

The pivot is 48" from the floor at the top safety notch, but will jack to 48 and 3/4". The max hight of the car depends on where the center of G is. You can see from the end view that the pivot is raised by the jack. The location of center relative to the car is adjusted by the inner frame with the top hand crank. I could be wrong, but it should rotate a large car 360 without hitting the ground; assuming the car is less than 8 feet wide. Did that make sense?

What is cool about my design is that the car can be picked up by the rotisserie. Most rotisseries need a seperate device to put the car in it. With mine, you drive the car into the garage. You assemble the rotisserie around the car (wheel the ends into place and then slide the cross tubes into the ends and lock them down). Then you connect the arms to the bumper mounts, or whatever is a strong enough location to lift the car. You first crank the pivot placing it (hopefully) into something close to CG. Then you jack up the pivot to get the car off the ground. Oh and of course, you have to hold your mouth right while you do it.

I estimate the weight of this rotisserie to be about 1200 pounds. The empty CRX shell on it right now weighs, what, 600, 700? I feel confident the rotisserie can hold up to 5000 lbs.

Have a great Fourth!!

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 8:

I hope everyone had a great Fourth!!

I had a great day! Today I started early and finished putting the curved slots into the top discs. I spent a little time on this yesterday as well. No way I could do this in one day! Very slow and stressful work, but I did it without making a single mistake.

I used the jig I made for the bottom plates. First I put some holes where the slots will eventually go. Drilling holes is the most efficient and fastest way to remove bulk material. Having the holes also helps reduce the stress on the milling cutter when the slot is machined into the plate. Here is a shot of a top plate gettin some holes:



Once the holes are in, I mill the larger slot into the tops:



The last step is to use a smaller milling cutter to make the narrow slot where the holes are located. Of course, like a dummy I forgot to get a picture of that step. But here are a couple of shots of the plates with their slots. No deburring or cleaning has been done yet.





Tomorrow I will spend the day making a jig to hold the top disc upside down. This will allow me to machine the pocket into the back of the disc that will hold the pillow bearing mount. I will also spend a bunch of time deburring all of these parts I have been making!

If time permits, I will start to machine the pillow bearing mount pocket into the backs of the top discs. I will not finish machining the pockets tomorrow, but once the pillow bearing mount pockets are finished, the stressful work will be done!

Take care,

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 9:

Not much to report like I suspected, but I did get started putting the pockets into the backs of the top discs. Spent most of the day deburring parts and making a simple jig to hold the top discs upside down. Here is a pick of one almost ready to come out of the jig:



Tomorrow, if I am lucky, I will finish this part of the job. If I don't, I will be real close!

Like I said before, once this step is finished, the stressful stuff is over! YEA!!!! It will be great when I take delivery of the CNC. I thought I was getting it today, but it looks like Monday or Tuesday. Cross your fingers!

I will post what happens with the parts tomorrow.

Take care,

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 10:

Still machining the pockets into the bottom of the top plates. Only spent a few hours on them today because I feel a bit off. Having trouble concentrating. So I stopped early to keep from making a mistake. Here is a picture of one ready to come out of the jig. Pocket machined and slots in for adjusting the pillow bearing mount:



Here are a couple of photos of a top disc finished. Bottom of top disc:



Top of top disc (that sounds funny):



The top disc is by far the most labor intensive piece of this project. Not much material left in these once they are done! Like a dork, I should have collected my aluminum shavings to sell to the recycler. Here in the fort, I think the going rate for scrap Aluminum is something like 45 cents per pound. Next time I will deep clean the machines before I start and use clean cans to collect!

Monday afternoon I will keep plugging away on these, but the first half of the day I drive out to pick up my CNC!!!! I met with my friend Dan Wilson and we have it all set up!

I expect the rest of the top discs will be finished Tuesday. So stay tuned!

Take care,

David

[firstgencrx]

Day 11:

The CNC has arrived! Ya Hoo! Life just got better. Spent the whole day getting it into the shop and I started to clean it up a bit. Decided it needs to do some work!!

So tomorrow, my goal (cross your fingers and hold your mouth right) is to finish the pockets on the bottoms of the top discs, with the CNC. Here is a "not so great" picture of the machine from earlier in the evening:



Modest and simple, but a great addition to my Mad Scientists Lab. Bwa-haa-haa-haa.

Thank you everyone for your patience!!!!!!!! Today is two weeks since I started this set and I thought I would be done by now. After tomorrow, the back on this first set should be seriously broken!

Take care all,

David

[jsgprod]

Either you have some VERY large hands, or those are a lot smaller than I first envisioned them .

They look really nice regardless. Looks like I need to ask you to add my name to your list of potential buyers...if it isn't already filled up.

Jay

[strudel]

David,
Just curious about the anodizing you will be doing. Is it an simple or difficult process? Do you have to do it in a batch or one at a time and are there extra costs associated? Can any of this initial batch be anodized? JS