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  1. #16
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Thumbs up Frame finished !

    Hi Guys,

    I've now got the frame finished for this tool !

    14-04-2021-004.jpg 14-04-2021-007.jpg

    This is the frame screwed together.

    14-04-2021-003.JPG 14-04-2021-005.jpg 14-04-2021-006.JPG

    Here I'm checking just how square that I've managed to get the two pieces to fit. Sorry about the shadows, the sun was behind me.

    14-04-2021-008.JPG 14-04-2021-009.JPG

    Here I'm just showing the general arrangement of the workpiece in position as it would be if it were being stamped.

    I've a pair of spacers to make yet and the mounting plate to machine for the punch/hammer assembly.
    So far I've done all the measuring and marking using the DRO, its much easier than using the hand wheel calibrations, I'm very pleased with it.

    I'll post some more pictures as I progress !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Toorloo Arm, VIC
    Age
    39
    Posts
    1,270

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BaronJ View Post
    So far I've done all the measuring and marking using the DRO, its much easier than using the hand wheel calibrations, I'm very pleased with it.
    I think if I didn't have the ancient 2 axis Mitutoyo on my mill, I'd have given up in frustration many years ago - or at least made so many scrap parts I couldn't afford to buy any more steel. A must have in my opinion (be even nicer if I had a scale on the knee!)

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Thumbs up Punch Mounting !

    Hi Guys,

    I made the punch mounting plate this morning ! Its a piece of 3 mm thick steel plate cut to size on the bandsaw and cleaned up on the edges using the mill.

    15-04-2021-001.JPG 15-04-2021-002.JPG

    This is the plate ! The punch block is mounted on this plate by means of four M3 CSK screws. I didn't even bother marking this out, I just found the edges and did the divide by two on the DRO then worked from the numbers on the DRO. This is too easy ! There is no way that I could have produced this in an hour using the hand wheels.

    The slots were done by plunging a 6 mm centre cutting slot drill in and cutting to the other end. I used a block of hardwood as a parallel with the plate sat on top and clamped in the mill vise jaws. The small holes were just drilled 3 mm diameter. They have yet to be countersunk, but that is a job I can do on the drill press.

    15-04-2021-004.JPG 15-04-2021-005.jpg

    15-04-2021-006.jpg 15-04-2021-003.jpg

    These pictures show the assembly ! I didn't have any cap screws to hand, so I just used the M6 CSK ones to show how it fits. The plate is intended to slide up and down to take into account of the dial size.

    Next job is to make the punch and stamp holder itself which is a lathe job.

    Thanks Guys:
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,416

    Default

    Looking good so far.
    I love the jobs with minimal setup and accuracy.
    Using Tapatalk

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Default

    Hi Dave,

    Yes I'm very very happy with the DRO. Up to getting and using one, I hadn't really given it much thought. But since my wife insisted that she should buy me something for my birthday, that was what I chose, and I'm glad I did.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Thumbs up Punch Holder Body !

    Hi Guys,

    Lots of pictures in this post !

    I've been doing some more work on the punch and stamp holder body. I cut a piece of plate 12 mm thick steel plate 2 inches (50 mm) long and milled it down so that it became a 12 mm square bar.

    17-04-2021-002.jpg 17-04-2021-001.JPG

    This was done simply to make it symmetrical and easy to centre up in the four jaw chuck on the lathe in order to drill a 4 mm diameter hole accurately down the centre of the bar to a depth of 37 mm.

    17-04-2021-008.jpg

    This is the punch body after drilling and slotting with the 4 mm diameter punch rod in place.

    17-04-2021-003.JPG 17-04-2021-006.jpg
    17-04-2021-005.JPG 17-04-2021-004.JPG

    After I drilled the 4 mm diameter hole using the lathe I then clamped the bar in the milling vise sitting on parallels to ensure that it was level and used a 1/16" inch thick slitting saw to cut a slot in the other end. Even though I carefully measured the thickness, I still didn't quite hit the centre line of the workpiece, being a whopping 1/2 mm out to one side. Fortunately there is enough slop in the adjusting plate to compensate for this slight deviation.

    The above pictures show the slot and the stamps that will be placed in that slot when in use.

    17-04-2021-007.jpg

    This is the slitting saw that I used mounted on the mill mandrel. It was one that I had acquired from the scrapyard and I had to sharpen it before I could use it ! I thought that I might get away with just using it but when I first tried, it just rubbed and caused the mill to stall. So I used my chain saw blade sharpener to grind the teeth and sharpen them. I was quite surprised just how well it worked. Anyway after sharpening the saw cut very nicely and quite rapidly considering just how coarse the teeth were. The blade is 150 mm diameter and I ran it at 350 rpm with lubricant applied with a brush.

    17-04-2021-010.jpg 17-04-2021-009.JPG

    I had a piece of thin steel plate that was a good fit in the slot, so I cut an oversize piece out and with a hacksaw and a file cut a slot wide enough for the stamp layed on its side to fit into it without binding. You can see one of the stamps placed in the slot.

    17-04-2021-011.jpg 17-04-2021-012.JPG 17-04-2021-013.JPG

    As you can see here that bit of thin plate is a good push fit in the end of the piece of square bar. I used the piece of 4 mm rod that I'm going to use for the punch down the hole to centre the piece of thin plate in the slot and then Loctited it in place. I will cut the excess off and file the rest down to make it match the surface of the punch body.

    That's all for now ! More to come. Thanks for your comments.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Dardanup W.A.
    Age
    72
    Posts
    331

    Default

    Looking good John, hope it works well.

    I gave some thought to this when I was looking at replacing some dials a while ago, but it only got to the concept drawing stage.
    The idea was to rotate the dial back & forth under pressure, or alternatively use a small hammer and tap-tap-tap as the dial is advanced in small increments.
    The idea is to lay the letter of digit around the curve of the dial to an equal depth around the curve.
    The square tube is mounted so it can slide a small amount side to side to match the travel of the dial surface. (Pendulum action)


    Screen Shot 2021-04-18 at 11.48.51 am.jpg

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Default

    Hi Phill, Guys,

    Thank you for your post. I've been doing some more work on the device and Ironing out a small problem, but I'll cover that in the next part.

    I've seen machines similar to your sketch that impress print onto a curved surface. They are basically two rolling surfaces a bit like a pair of gears. Depending upon the size of the letters/numbers, the change in indentation depth across the curve is going to be very small. I haven't bothered trying to work it out !
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  9. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Dardanup W.A.
    Age
    72
    Posts
    331

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BaronJ View Post
    Hi Phill, Guys,
    I've been doing some more work on the device and Ironing out a small problem, but I'll cover that in the next part.
    Looking forward to the end result John.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Default

    Hi Guys,

    Almost there I've a few little bits and pieces to do, but first today’s efforts.

    18-04-2021-003.JPG 18-04-2021-005.jpg

    I mentioned in the last post that I had a small problem ! Well since the stamp is so tiny, there is no room for a spring to lift the stamp off the dial being impressed, The solution that I've come up with is a magnet ! This magnet is 3 mm in diameter and 4 mm long. You cannot see it but the magnet has a short pin 1 mm diameter and 2 mm long on one end. I drilled a 1 mm diameter hole in the end of the 4 mm diameter rod and Loctited the magnet to the end of the rod.

    Actually the physical magnet is inside a drilling, that bit you can see stuck on the end of that rod is just a casing holding the magnet proper. I got another one just in case I loose this one. The second picture shows one of the stamps stuck to the magnet. So in use lifting the rod will lift the stamp clear of the dial surface !

    18-04-2021-006.JPG 18-04-2021-007.JPG 18-04-2021-008.JPG

    These are pictures of the finished punch mounting. It occurred to me that although I designed the tool to be able to accommodate dial diameters from 1" inch upto 2" inches, by drilling and threading an extra pair of holes drilled and threaded M3 I could almost get a much larger dial on the tool, almost 3" inches.

    18-04-2021-004.jpg

    This is the stamp protruding from the punch body. You can see how close the M3 screw hole is to one side of the punch body. You may recall that I didn't get the slot quite in the centre, so I milled 0.5 mm off the punch body on that side so all three screws on that side are half a mm closer to the edge.

    18-04-2021-001.JPG 18-04-2021-002.jpg

    A couple of pictures of the assembled stamping tool. In the second of these pictures you can just see the stamp protruding out at the dial.

    NOTE: The magnet and the M3 countersunk screws all were salvaged from scrapped 3.5" inch hard disk drives and other scrapped electrical equipment.

    I now have to make two spacers in order to align the stamp and dial ready for stamping, so to find some 3 mm thick alloy plate.

    Thanks for your comments Guys, your encouragement is appreciated.
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Default

    Hi Guys,

    I found a piece of scrap 3 mm thick alloy plate, its got some holes in it but not too many. I cut a couple of 50 mm squares out and drilled them in the middle, placed them an a mandrel and turned them into discs using the lathe.

    19-04-2021-004.jpg

    These are the two discs. The only hole of importance is the centre one.

    19-04-2021-001.jpg 19-04-2021-002.jpg

    A couple of pictures showing how the stamp just clears the washers/discs, and how it sits with respect to the edge of the dial. I will have to make some smaller washers to allow for smaller dials to be stamped.

    19-04-2021-003.jpg

    Looking down on the punch holder with the stamp just protruding.

    Next job is to test the tool and see if I need to make any adjustments !

    Thanks Guys:
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Default Test Stamping !

    Hi Guys,

    I thought that I would run a quick test of stamping a dial using this new tool ! Buy first I had to make something that I could use as an index.

    20-04-2021-003.JPG 20-04-2021-004.JPG

    I had a small piece of alloy flat material 1 mm thick, so I cut a length off and drilled it and then put a 90 degree bend in it. The blue marker is where I've scribed lines.

    20-04-2021-001.JPG 20-04-2021-006.JPG

    20-04-2021-005.jpg 20-04-2021-002.JPG

    The idea is that the top left hand corner marked in red, points quite nicely to one of the marks on the paper calibration disc that is glued to the surface of the dial. The first two pictures are before I tried stamping. I used one of the stamps that I had that would put suitable marks round the dial edge. The second pair of pictures show the result of stamping all the way round. I used a 1 Oz toffee hammer to tap the punch rod ! I gives a very nice sharp impression.

    I'm going to try and put the longer index marks every five positions and then to stamp the numbers for them. However I need something more positive for indexing the dial, so that I can get the numbers evenly positioned on either side of the longer index marks.

    So I'm going to have a play with this and see what I can come up with.

    Thanks Guys:
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  13. #28
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Location
    York, North Yorkshire UK
    Posts
    6,443

    Thumbs up Graduating Jig mods !

    Hi Guys,

    Just a few pictures to illustrate where I'm going in order to solve the indexing problem. I found a plastic 40 tooth gear in a pile of plastic gears that I had salvaged from all sorts of bits of gear. Its already got a 6 mm hole through the centre so it fits on the shaft through the backplate.

    However I turned a new shaft with a 3 mm thick collar to replace one of the 3 mm thick spacers. I threaded the short end M6 and drilled and threaded a hole M4 at the other. I also turned up a spacer to take up the additional length between the dial blank and the end of the shaft.

    22-04-2021-002.jpg 22-04-2021-003.jpg 22-04-2021-001.jpg

    These three pictures illustrate where I'm going with this. I propose to make an index plunger to fit into the teeth of the gear. The hole in the dial blank is for a small handle ! That hole is threaded M4.

    More to come: Thanks for your comments Guys:
    Best Regards:
    Baron J.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Norwood-ish, Adelaide
    Age
    59
    Posts
    6,541

    Default

    G'day John
    Just wondering whether a gusset across the corner of the 'L' may be an idea - the hammer blows (or weight) will stretch and bend the joining screws.

    Michael

  15. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,416

    Default

    Or an outboard support on the shaft would kill 2 birds with one stone.
    It would help with any bolt stretch and support the shaft to save elongating the hole over time.
    It could be made to be easily removed using that spacer as a bearing.

    Sent from my 5007U using Tapatalk
    Using Tapatalk

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