Thread: Eccentric's Acute and Turnado Kits

Last October I posted some images of the Turnado radius turning attachment I had purchased from Gary Sneesby at Eccentric Engineering - https://metalworkforums.com/f65/t202...74#post1941874. I mentioned that I had also acquired the copy tracing attachment but hadn't built it. Well now I have along with the large radius shoe attachment but more importantly, building these attachments provided the momentum to tackle the more complex Acute.

The Turnado with its attachments -

Attachment 380521 Attachment 380522 Attachment 380523 Attachment 380524 Attachment 380525
Attachment 380526 Attachment 380527

And the Acute..

Attachment 380528 Attachment 380529 Attachment 380530 Attachment 380531 Attachment 380532 Attachment 380533

I won't bore you all with a zillion photos of their construction but I will point out a few things I learnt along the way. The most important is to never use a bent drill bit in an attempt to drill an accurately sized hole. One of the critically positioned holes in the Acute's workhead locates a locking pin to prevent the head's rotation. The arrow shows its position below. The hole was to be drilled 2.9mm and reamed 3mm. The bit I used was bent very slightly but I thought all would be well because it would be guided by the spot drilled hole. The 3mm reamer dropped through the hole and wobbled. Drilling the hole with a straight 1/8" bit resolved the wobble issue but took me very close to the edge.

tempsnip.png IMG_20190410_153507592.jpg

Most of the components hole locations have been CNC spot drilled. When I commenced work on the Turnado accessories I laboriously used the microscope to centre the holes and then drilled the holes by raising the mill's table.
In reality all the drilling could be accomplished using a reasonably accurate drill press with the items to be drilled clamped to its table. I resorted to using the 13's sensitive drilling attachment as well as the quilled high speed head neither of which facititate the use of the scope. I did clamp all but one item to the table. The unclamped item snagged and became a propellor!!. Many of the holes require tapping and having them remained clamped to the table provides a reasonable chance of concentricity along with verticality.

IMG_20190507_144357249_BURST000_COVER_TOP.jpg IMG_20190408_150017870 (Large).jpg IMG_20190414_122249928.jpg

The Turnado and Acute are wonderful examples of Gary Sneesby's ingenuity and inventiveness. I have to get on with modifying my GMF grinder to enable the attachment of the Acute to take advantage of that ingenuity and inventiveness.

Thank you Gary.

Bob.

I'm confused. When I look at my post there are no photos of the completed kits just labels saying Attachment ..... If I go to Edit the photos are there.

If anyone is interested enough to look at this thread could they please let me know if the photos have appeared?

Bob.

Hi Bob.

5 photos displayed in above post.

Ken

Thanks Ken.

I just spoke with Alan "C-47" and he, like you and I, can only see those five photos.

Guess I need to repost them.

Bob.

The Turnado -

IMG_20190403_153517875 (Large).jpg IMG_20190403_153432101 (Large).jpg IMG_20190403_153948452.jpg IMG_20190403_153923555.jpg IMG_20190509_115018590.jpg
IMG_20190509_114639499.jpg IMG_20190509_114901487.jpg IMG_20190509_114548868.jpg

And the Acute

IMG_20190426_122841129.jpg IMG_20190426_122904553.jpg IMG_20190426_122930907.jpg IMG_20190427_133813606.jpg IMG_20190428_140128891.jpg IMG_20190420_121734841.jpg

IMG_20190420_121617434.jpg

I've had the pleasure of seeing these two gizmos close up and feeling how well they all slide together and hence can report that Bob has done a really great job on the machining and assembly.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

I'm confused. When I look at my post there are no photos of the completed kits just labels saying Attachment ..... If I go to Edit the photos are there.

If anyone is interested enough to look at this thread could they please let me know if the photos have appeared?

Bob.

Hi Bob, Thank you for reposting those missing pictures. I've seen this behaviour a couple of times. The forum limits you to ten pictures, which you have to use/post, then you can go back and load some more. Some browsers will allow selecting a whole group of pictures at once but only the first few will appear, the rest are seen as "Attachment 'number," and are not always clickable in order to view them, just giving an error message.

I no longer use group selection and select one by one because of this effect.

Lovely work Bob. A few days ago I made a poor man’s tapering guide for my Turnado. I’ve been using it to taper pen barrels. I scribed two lines 100mm apart on the Turnado and I use my digital callipers to set the taper. I like your lever-action locking screw. I’ll replace the SHCS on mine with one of those.

If I read your post correctly Bob I assume that you built the acute using the kit rather than starting from scratch and using the drawings.
How long did it take to put together?

Thanks
Tony

I built one of these a while back. I use it on my diy diamond grinder for sharpening Biax blades with a custom holder. I think they are a useful bit of kit. I liked it so much I brought another one for my other grinder for sharpening HSS tools. That one is still in the box until I get around to it. It’s not a 5 minute job putting them together, but well worth the effort.

Originally Posted by tony_A

If I read your post correctly Bob I assume that you built the acute using the kit rather than starting from scratch and using the drawings.
How long did it take to put together?

Thanks
Tony

Definitely the kit Tony. If it was only the drawings I reckon I would still be looking at them.

I had a look to see when I took my first and final photos. I started on the 7th of April and finished on the 30th of April. I did have a few days off as wife and grandkids time but otherwise I might have spent probably 5 to 6 hours each day fiddling around with the Acute components. I'm retired and I wasn't in a race and more importantly, I enjoy using my machines.

In reality, buying one of Gary's completed kits would be a bargain but you would miss an insight into how clever the bloke is.

Bob.

Originally Posted by jack620

Lovely work Bob. A few days ago I made a poor man’s tapering guide for my Turnado. I’ve been using it to taper pen barrels. I scribed two lines 100mm apart on the Turnado and I use my digital callipers to set the taper. I like your lever-action locking screw. I’ll replace the SHCS on mine with one of those.

Hi Chris,

With your setup you would have to hold the end of the toolpost's mounting shoe hard up and square against your fence. The neat thing about the parallelogram arm is that when it is clamped in position the toolpost can slide in all directions but it can't rotate facilitating accurate tracing. You had better get one!

Bob.

True Bob. My setup only works for cutting straight tapers. It's easy to keep the shoe against the fence using two hands. It wouldn't work for tracing a curved template.