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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Perth WA
    Age
    71
    Posts
    6,458

    Default Rod M revisited and a shingle to hang from a tree.

    I went out to Rod's place yesterday to have a look at his Douglas and to experience the feel of a correctly operating table vertical feed. His shaper is close to perfect. There is hardly any evidence of wear on the slideways and the flycut surfaces of his vise are unmarked. The meshing of the bevel gears on the vertical feed is smooth unlike the rough feel of mine. An impressive bit of gear. Sits well in his too neat shed.

    Now it was Rod who tried to discourage my purchase of the Tough wood lathe on the grounds of the mess it would create. Little did I know that Rod had a background of wood turning on lathes far larger than the Tough. I knew he was a former woodie who had taken the art of routing to another level with his wondrous CNC creations.

    Anyway... after fondling the feed handles on the Douglas, Rod said he was making something for me. There was a sheet of black acrylic clamped to the table on one of his machines.

    Thanks again Rod.

    BT

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Perth WA
    Posts
    526

    Default

    I like the setting with the sawhorse to sit and ponder what creations you will make. I like the idea of turning outdoors and my negative reaction was because I didn't want to see a layer of sawdust on all your metalworking machines.

    I bet you will be eying off verandah posts and all sorts of places for material to satisfy urge.

    I must admit the wood turning topic did stir up some good memories but remembering standing ankle deep in shavings with shirt pockets full of same and tanin stained hands reminded me why I changed direction. Just remember that some timbers will cause allergies and there are some that just shouldn't be turned.

    The Tough is a good machine and you will appreciate the weight of the cast iron when you mount an out of round piece between centres.

    On the subject of CNC I am helping to built a CNC wood lathe for a long time turner who is semi retired and found a niche for repetitive turning. I am not sure if it is appropriate to post it here but it is metal and I might sneek a post in here once it resembles it final purpose.
    Despite sitting here writing this I am currently machining a mechanical iris and have one ear cocked listening for the spindle so that I can panic and run out there in case it crashes. This CNC machining is hard work.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
    Age
    74
    Posts
    5,080

    Default

    Hi Rod,

    Nice gesture, and a great idea for inspiring BT to keep the wood turning outside

    Just BTW..
    I started the CNC journey in earnest last week with the arrival of a little CNC3020, it's running with EMC2 and so far all I've done is a few small aluminium jobs. It's more of a learning device to get to grips with the software. So I'll know what I'm doing with the HM52 conversion.. But I can already see it will be perfect for doing front panels.

    Regards
    Ray

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Perth WA
    Posts
    526

    Default

    Hi Ray,
    Good to hear and even better when the HM52 is finished.

    I have a similar machine I imported to see how good these are.
    They are not perfect but I can only buy the electronics and motors for their total machine price so not much point me making any more.

    There is a learning curve to operating these but being able to easily make curves and shapes with the only restriction being the radius of the cutter it opens up heaps of new design ideas.

    If you do a bit of electical panel work then get yourself some of the Romark or Gravograph material here as an example Other suppliers around for this so do a search for somebody closer.
    I use double sided tape to fix it to the ally panel. If you want to try some I have a fair bit and can send some over.
    Cheers,
    Rod

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    9,088

    Default

    Nice work Rod. Good idea to keep the wood work outside, I've only turned one wood job on my metal lathe(12 chair feet), what a mess(and I'd say about an hours cleaning on the lathe alone), makes metal work look clean!

    Stuart

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