Sunday, October 26, 2014

Metal Awl Shuttle

I made a metal shuttle for use in conjunction with the awl. It works well. I will include an aluminum one with awls sold on Etsy.

 
I will also sell them individually if anyone needs one. They would be about $15.00 each; email if interested.


Monday, October 13, 2014

Mk. III, Number Two


This is the awl I made to keep. Brass body.




It's already working hard, patching jeans:



A video of the awl in use is coming. The first Mk. III awl is now for sale on Etsy.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Mill Motor and Pulleys


The large pulley is made of solid maple. I turned the OD on the wood lathe, and the ID on the metal lathe with a vacuum next to the cutter.  The small pulley, and bushing inside the large pulley are made of delrin. The white tube in the upper right contains the run capacitors and a leprechaun.


Above, a fuller view. Below, you can see the bottom of the bushing that interfaces the pulley with the spindle. There are two 4-40 clamping screws, radially symmetrical. 90ยบ from the clamping screws on the flange are 1/16" dowel pins, parallel with the spindle. These stick up into the wooden pulley to prevent slippage. I could have made the wooden pulley press-fit on the spindle, but I thought it would crack over time. It probably will anyway, but there was no decent plywood around. The wooden pulley ID is a slip fit onto the bushing. The delrin motor pulley is a press-fit.


Below is the first iteration of drive belt. It's made of a bicycle inner tube. It won't last forever but it works for now. Maybe a piece of thin leather will find its way into my hands by the time it breaks. If not, there is a steady supply of inner tube rubber. The pulley ratio ended up bringing the no-load RPM to 490 RPM. The motor can put out about 25 watts of power. I'm certain that a 16" bastard file could remove metal more quickly, but a 16" bastard file can't drill bolt patterns.



Above is the enclosure mounting bracket, also made of 3/4 maple. Made it with a jeweler's saw! Took a while.

Here is a video of it working:


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Japan Flag


I made this for a friend... I had the colors left from a futsal flag. Sorry Canada. It's double-sided.


The sun has some irregularities, which are intentionally representative of solar weather. Mhmm. It would be cleaner if I could sew it with a zig-zag without the end tucked, but it wouldn't be as strong and I don't have a zig zag machine. Regardless, I think it looks a lot better than a printed/dyed flag. It has depth.
 


I cut these hanging strips on the bias, sewed them, and inverted them with a long wire hook made of RG45 welding rod.