Die Shots

I'm starting to put die shots over on another blog. There's only one there so far.

https://blackrockdieshots.blogspot.com/

Agh! I Got Fed Up With It

I have a woodworking vice on my bench (made from old garage roof bits) and it has had a succession of jaw inserts. Each of them has broken, the last one was a piece of scaffolding board that I didn't think would break, but it did:

So I finally got fed up with this and made a jaw from some bamboo flooring and some plywood:

Of course, the other jaw now looks bad, so I glued up another jaw to match. I had to use a lot of clamps on this, because I could.

 

I now (after sanding and filling and planing) have a pair of nice strong jaws, let's see how long they last...

Of course, I got fed up with the other vice next to this one and made some new wooden jaws for that too:

Hmm, that's better.

Day of Fixes

Today has included a series of fixes to things, all of them successful. This is very satisfying. First, I had a PSU connector on a laptop to install. This went pretty well, and the laptop now charges. The old connector was split in half and had to be persuaded to charge. Not any more.

 It charges!
The case is still broken though, but I don't think I need to do anything about that.

We went out today to get some wool for a fix,see below for that one. While we were out I spotted this camera in a charity shop:

It is a Panasonic DMC-TZ3, which is quite a nice camera, with a big 'Leica'lens and a solid feel to it. It was sold as seen, which turned out to mean broken. I tried it out in the shop and it kept on saying turn camera off and on again, which I put down to mean that the batteries were flat. This wasn't the case when I got it home and charged them, as the message persisted. A quick google confirmed that it's probably a stuck lens, someone on the internet gave it to a camera fixer and got it back a couple of days later with the problem gone. Stuck zoom lenses on compact cameras is a very common problem, so I decided to dismantle the camera and see if I could fix the problem. I did this and found some fluff and dirt in the lens zoom mechanism  Fbut didn't find anything obviously stuck. I put it back together and the message still appeared. Oh dear. While trying to get it to work I noticed that it never went into sharp focus. While dismantled I spotted two stepper motors, one for th ezoom mechanism and one for what looked like focus. I had fiddled with the zoom mechanism, but not the focus. I dismantled the lens again and looked at the focus hardware. It did appear to be stuck, so I took the focus stepper off and the mechanism was them moving. After re-assembly the camera worked. It takes pretty nice pictures too, so it will be put to work taking pictures of the ongoing project.
Incidentally, the focus motor looked very very similar to the small stepper motors that I have bought on ebay for the XY table project, so I think that's what they were originally made for.

The reason for the trip out was to get some dark blue wool for the next fix. A bit of darning:

I think it's come out quite well. (Picture taken with DMC-TZ3).

I forgot, I fixed a zip as well. Four fixes.


So, a busy day, all successful....

Another Vice Handle

 Last year I bought this homemade vice from a treasure shop:

I've used it, many, many times, more than I thought I would, so I was upset when the handle fell off. The original handle was just a nail, and I think the fastening method was a kink:

So, I made a better handle, well, one that didn't rely on a kink to not fall out:

I may attempt something better than a couple of nuts on the end, but they work. (And the diameter of the rod is a bit too small for an M5 thread). Let's see how long it doesn't fall out...

An Arduino Case

A friend is working on an Arduino based project and wanted a case for the Arduino Uno and an LCD shield. He pointed me at this case:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:132497

A couple of printing sessions later (it took about an hour for the top and bottom halves, and 20mins or so for six buttons) and we have a case for the electronics:

As cases go it is nice to hold as it is curved, and fits together pretty well with the clips holding the top to the bottom. I'd prefer the case was screwed together, but there's no provision for that. the butons will need trimming I think, but after that it should work pretty well.
I used natural PLA (faberdashery) and that is transparent-ish and so all the Arduino LEDs shine through the case, giving a colourful effect.

More Maslow

The Maslow has been used quite a bit recently, and there have been a couple of problems. The chain was still jumping so I checked on the forum and found that another user had put the nylon chain guides (which I don't use any more as I have 3D printed some) close to the sprocket to stop the chain riding up on the sprocket teeth and then jumping. So I did the same:

This stopped the chain jumping completely. I haven't had a single jump since I did this. Unfortunately I did then have the chain fail to leave the sprocket correctly and it wrapped itself round the sprocket:

This isn't good, probably worse than a chain jump actually, as it can damage the machine. I checked to forum again and found that a weight hanging off the chain would probably help here, so I dangled a couple of power tools off the chains and that problem has gone away.

I then managed to cut all the remaining chair legs that I need to complete the set of six chairs I am working on. (I'm sitting on chair number two as I type this...).

Sometimes Things Don't Go Right

The chairs I've been making recently have four curved bars across the back. I've been cutting them on the Maslow. They look like this when they are finished:

I cut them with a router set to about 60mm depth and a toolpath that runs up and down the concave side taking off 2mm at a time. It then runs back and forth across the conves side taking off 2mm at a time. I hold the blanks to the Maslow base using a couple of 70mm screws. This is fine, except that on the latest part I was cutting the screws came loose, I think because the vibration of the routing and pressure of the tool was wearing the holes in the base. It's made of chipboard and the screws just got loose. Once the part started moving, the router made a hell of a noise and did this to the workpiece

The bit has ripped the wood apart.
I'm now going to try to use some 6mm studding through the workpiece and see if that lasts longer than the screw method. I only have seven more to do I think, so hopefully it will stand up for that long. I need a new blank now too...