What's Paul up to?

[PaulL]

In the continuing saga of not doing much in the shop, today I kicked off this project, which has been sitting in a project box under the bench far too long:

To get warmed up I started with jig 4a, which is used to align a detent pin through two other parts. Whoa cowboy! Slow it down!
Completely resisted starting with the big casting.

 

[DavidR8]

In the continuing saga of not doing much in the shop, today I kicked off this project, which has been sitting in a project box under the bench far too long:

To get warmed up I started with jig 4a, which is used to align a detent pin through two other parts. Whoa cowboy! Slow it down!
Completely resisted starting with the big casting.

Is that a dividing head?

 

[140mower]

In the continuing saga of not doing much in the shop, today I kicked off this project, which has been sitting in a project box under the bench far too long:

To get warmed up I started with jig 4a, which is used to align a detent pin through two other parts. Whoa cowboy! Slow it down!
Completely resisted starting with the big casting.

Looking forward to following along with this. I trust that there will be pictures, lots of pictures, we are slow learners and are visually stimulated......

 

[PaulL]

Is that a dividing head?

Yep. It's the Hemingway Kits one. I'm starting with Basic, then have the parts for Advanced, and then the parts for the dividing plates. Should be fun.

Looking forward to following along with this. I trust that there will be pictures, lots of pictures, we are slow learners and are visually stimulated......

Sir, yes, sir! I did take advantage of the new project to clear my bench and sharpen my HSS. More pictures next part!

 

[jcdammeyer]

Versatile Dividing Head - Basic Kit (24 index holes pre-drilled) - hemingwaykits.com

Unique projects for the small workshop owner. Please browse our Toolroom and Engine Bay for our latest project kits.

www.hemingwaykits.com

 

[PaulL]

The other thing that's been taking my time (besides springtime small engine maintenance and repair at the cabin - all simple stuff) has been the dread, and now deceased keyboard my mother had dropped on me. The synth chip itself is shot, shorting the data lines to ground. That was a long debug, much longer than the device deserved. My buddy found a keyboard for my mother last weekend, in the trash in his lane. Cleaned it up, and it's the descendent model of the same low-end Yamaha PSR-70, but from the early '90s instead.
But that has led to a bit of (VERY OFF-TOPIC) retrocomputing effort in which I'm putting together a little multi-board Z80 computer to mess around with. The idea is to have a main board with the CPU and clock circuitry and then daughter boards for devices, memory, ROM, etc. The mainboard design and a "debug" ROM emulator are designed and ready to go for fabrication. I have two more small boards I want to add to the order, maybe later this week.

These are 10x20cm and 10x10cm. Pricing on PCBs is *insane*. I costed these PCBs and they come out to 40 cents per 100 square cm. It's a minimum order of 5 boards each, at a quoted price of $6.00 CAD. Yes. $6.00. Plus $24 Fedex. It's a two to three day turn in the factory, then two days for Fedex to get them to me. This is completely ridiculous.
The components remain more expensive, of course, with the card-dege connectors (gray in the first picture) coming in at $4.65 each. Everthing else costs less except for a couple of EEPROMs that run into the $20 range.
This is much cheaper than end mills.
So yeah, retirement: you can take the man out of the computer company, but you can't take the computers out of the man.
Paul

 

[140mower]

The other thing that's been taking my time (besides springtime small engine maintenance and repair at the cabin - all simple stuff) has been the dread, and now deceased keyboard my mother had dropped on me. The synth chip itself is shot, shorting the data lines to ground. That was a long debug, much longer than the device deserved. My buddy found a keyboard for my mother last weekend, in the trash in his lane. Cleaned it up, and it's the descendent model of the same low-end Yamaha PSR-70, but from the early '90s instead.
But that has led to a bit of (VERY OFF-TOPIC) retrocomputing effort in which I'm putting together a little multi-board Z80 computer to mess around with. The idea is to have a main board with the CPU and clock circuitry and then daughter boards for devices, memory, ROM, etc. The mainboard design and a "debug" ROM emulator are designed and ready to go for fabrication. I have two more small boards I want to add to the order, maybe later this week.
View attachment 46465View attachment 46467
These are 10x20cm and 10x10cm. Pricing on PCBs is *insane*. I costed these PCBs and they come out to 40 cents per 100 square cm. It's a minimum order of 5 boards each, at a quoted price of $6.00 CAD. Yes. $6.00. Plus $24 Fedex. It's a two to three day turn in the factory, then two days for Fedex to get them to me. This is completely ridiculous.
The components remain more expensive, of course, with the card-dege connectors (gray in the first picture) coming in at $4.65 each. Everthing else costs less except for a couple of EEPROMs that run into the $20 range.
This is much cheaper than end mills.
So yeah, retirement: you can take the man out of the computer company, but you can't take the computers out of the man.
Paul

.....so, like, I didn't understand a damn thing, I am just so happy to not be the only crazy one in the room.

 

[jcdammeyer]

The other thing that's been taking my time (besides springtime small engine maintenance and repair at the cabin - all simple stuff) has been the dread, and now deceased keyboard my mother had dropped on me. The synth chip itself is shot, shorting the data lines to ground. That was a long debug, much longer than the device deserved. My buddy found a keyboard for my mother last weekend, in the trash in his lane. Cleaned it up, and it's the descendent model of the same low-end Yamaha PSR-70, but from the early '90s instead.
But that has led to a bit of (VERY OFF-TOPIC) retrocomputing effort in which I'm putting together a little multi-board Z80 computer to mess around with. The idea is to have a main board with the CPU and clock circuitry and then daughter boards for devices, memory, ROM, etc. The mainboard design and a "debug" ROM emulator are designed and ready to go for fabrication. I have two more small boards I want to add to the order, maybe later this week.
View attachment 46465View attachment 46467
These are 10x20cm and 10x10cm. Pricing on PCBs is *insane*. I costed these PCBs and they come out to 40 cents per 100 square cm. It's a minimum order of 5 boards each, at a quoted price of $6.00 CAD. Yes. $6.00. Plus $24 Fedex. It's a two to three day turn in the factory, then two days for Fedex to get them to me. This is completely ridiculous.
The components remain more expensive, of course, with the card-dege connectors (gray in the first picture) coming in at $4.65 each. Everthing else costs less except for a couple of EEPROMs that run into the $20 range.
This is much cheaper than end mills.
So yeah, retirement: you can take the man out of the computer company, but you can't take the computers out of the man.
Paul

You realize there are entire facebook groups dedicated to building almost the same thing as you have there...

 

[PaulL]

You realize there are entire facebook groups dedicated to building almost the same thing as you have there...

I'm sure there are. But this is *my* seat-of-the-pants not-quite-standard I'm-still-learning-how-to-do-this machine!

 

[jcdammeyer]

I'm sure there are. But this is *my* seat-of-the-pants not-quite-standard I'm-still-learning-how-to-do-this machine!

Once I get some work-work out of the way I want to get back to being able to read the CF cards on this system. The NEC 82C55 arrived a few weeks ago and apparently it's the only one of that type that will properly read the cards. No idea. No space to set it up at the moment.


The card behind it is a Z180 c/w 512K Ram and 512K Flash

 

[jorogi]

.....so, like, I didn't understand a damn thing, I am just so happy to not be the only crazy one in the room.

I here you bud, I can't even spell PCB or ROM.

 

[140mower]

I here you bud, I can't even spell PCB or ROM.

All I know is that if you ask the wife if you can fondle her floppy discs, you aint gettin nothing for the foreseeable future.....

 

[Tom O]

All I know is that if you ask the wife if you can fondle her floppy discs, you aint gettin nothing for the foreseeable future.....

I hate it when the memory still works!

 

[PaulL]

Made part 7, simple turning and threading, plus a hole aligned using part 4a from yesterday. It will recive a short pin which aligns with a hole on the plunger body.

Also discovered I was turning tapers when using my tailstock - 8thou thou over 1"! Of course I found out by not checking the whole length of a skinny little part:

I adjusted the tailstock, and I'll try this again tomorrow. This one will become another plunger that gets to be a tiny bit smaller, in a later stage of the build.
This is also the first time I've said "I need a smaller lathe". These little pins are a pain to move my carriage around with tailstock support. I thought of turning it on centers, but I'd have to make a tiny little steady for it. For now, I'll continue with the sacrificial section at the tailstock end to give the carriage some space to maneouver.

Paul

 

[PaulL]

Well fsck. Ok, don't make it that way. Do the thick part first and hold it by the 1/2" long thicker section? That doesn't leave me enough length to engage the tail support while cutting the 5/32" section.
Or find a smaller lathe. A friend has a cruddy little unimat that might be just right.

 

[DavidR8]

Well fsck. Ok, don't make it that way. Do the thick part first and hold it by the 1/2" long thicker section? That doesn't leave me enough length to engage the tail support while cutting the 5/32" section.
Or find a smaller lathe. A friend has a cruddy little unimat that might be just right.

View attachment 46773

Wanna borrow my Taig?

 

[jcdammeyer]

Taig or Unimat. Looks like both are available.

 

[thestelster]

Well fsck. Ok, don't make it that way. Do the thick part first and hold it by the 1/2" long thicker section? That doesn't leave me enough length to engage the tail support while cutting the 5/32" section.
Or find a smaller lathe. A friend has a cruddy little unimat that might be just right.

View attachment 46773

You could try chucking (collet chuck prefered) a 3/8" piece of stock sticking out 1.4" and take a single pass at a depth of cut of 0.108" with a sharp hss cutter.

 

[PaulL]

You could try chucking (collet chuck prefered) a 3/8" piece of stock sticking out 1.4" and take a single pass at a depth of cut of 0.108" with a sharp hss cutter.

Even then I'm sorely lacking in tail support - just the 3/8" stock seems to have plenty of flex at 1 1/2" stick out. And with a collet chuck I have even less reach with my tail support.

 

[thestelster]

Even then I'm sorely lacking in tail support - just the 3/8" stock seems to have plenty of flex at 1 1/2" stick out. And with a collet chuck I have even less reach with my tail support.

I needed to see if I was giving you bad advice, so I decided to try.

-3/8" O1 steel (that's all I had),
-670rpm, 0.0025 in/rev
-hss tool
-depth of cut: 0.108", single pass

And yes, it's under your required dimension, but I didn't take a precut to determine exact size.

It just needs a bit of post turning work to get it perfect. But it works pretty good.