On Fri, 19 Feb 2016 07:39:19 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 18 Feb 2016 13:02:09 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
http://tinyurl.com/z56msjj
I'd love to build a scaled version of one of these little
beauties.
Specs are outstanding. I wonder what diesel engine they're using.
Is this the first diesel hybrid plugin? I don't recall seeing one
before.
What did you say you had for machine tools?
Um, let's see. I have several hammers! :/
For metalworking, so far: a drill press, portable bandsaw (time to
make a base for it), several 4" angle grinders, disc/belt sander
combo, table saw (for aluminum and plastics), indicators and bases,
calipers and other measuring devices, 3" sine vise, angle plate,
v-blocks, tapping stand, grinder, buffer and 1/2 dozen compounds,
TIG
welder w/ argon, various square tubing sizes, various chunks of
delrin
and other plastics, etc. Not a whole lot of machine tools, but it's
a
start.
My buddy, Gunner, refuses to find a $5 compact vertical mill for me,
but my buddy, Glenn, lets me use his gear head mill, lathe, and real
TIG when I need them. He's half an hour away.
Building machinery takes lots of time or money. I spent most of the
morning making one custom-sized split shaft clamp like this from
aluminum to support new guy lines on my antenna mast.
http://www.staffordmfg.com/Product-C...p-Type-Collars
Alas, "I'd love to" and "I'm starting to" are two different things.
Funding -may- play some small part in this.
You can build quite a lot with a bandsaw, drill press and welder if
you design the power transmission around $tock components.
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=220003011
I have a spare mandrel setup with good pillows on it, but something
like this looked interesting. I'd not abuse my files and hacksaws as
he does, though. And why didn't he use the bandsaw to cut the alum
block?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKdkAs482Po
Most of my sawmill and a good fraction of my front end loader were
sawn and welded, and most of the parts I machined could have been
bought. The ones I made were considerably less bulky, being integrated
into the structures instead of bolted on.
This is good!
http://store.cookssaw.com/sawmill-pa...-1-1-2-blades/
Having machine tools let me make them from bar stock and $5 of skate
bearings.
And they're 25x cheaper and probably last longer. That $5 got you a
10pk roll of bearings, right? I picked some up to make small machine
skates for the shop.
When I was estimating quotes to respond to RFQs for custom equipment I
had to quickly learn to decide between building or buying. I read many
catalogs of components.
http://www.wmberg.com/
Sounds familiar. I think they might have been one of the vendors when
I was doing QA work.
http://www.actuate.com/download/whit...ild-vs-buy.pdf
Will read, thanks.
I tend to build the first example of something new like this aluminum
shaft collar for the experience. I've been tinkering with adapting an
APC SU1400 pure-sine UPS to solar power and first learned how to make
the custom serial cable and reprogram it at low level with Hyperterm
before using the third-party applications apcupsd.exe and apcfix.exe:
http://www.apcupsd.org/
http://apc-fix.com/apcfix
I'll have to check those out. Every time I look at logging
controllers, I find something else to delve into before settling on
any one of them. Did you build your own MPPT controller, or just do
the logging communications with the computer?
--
No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy
of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows;
in no way can the success of evil be made quicker or surer.
--Theodore Roosevelt