The purpose of this project is to create a Gyro Top consisting of a bearing, mass body, and a center shaft. During this project, I will learn how to use the waterjet, HAAS CNC Mill, and the HAAS Lathe in KRLL Shop. These are all new skills being introduced to me with this project. I will also put into practice the skills that I have learned regarding Engineering Drawings.
Inspire - The purpose of this project is to practice and learn how to use many of the machines and tools available in the shop, and practice our skills in CAD
Create - During this project, we will be creating a mass body and a shaft, which will come together with a bearing to create a Gyro Top
Release -
22mm OD 8mm ID Non-Sealed Bearing
Aluminum Shaft
7mm Thick Aluminum
There are 3 primary tools used during this project to create the Gyro Top. First off, the waterjet is used to cut out the design of mass bodies. Secondly, the HAAS CNC Mill is used to create a press fit inside of the mass body. Finally, the lathe is used to cut out the shaft.
There are multiple measurement tools also used to create the Gyro Top. These were primarily used to measure the dimensions of the bearing to create an accurate press fit and shaft diameter. These tools are the micrometer, digital caliper, and ball gauge.
The primary CAD tool used during this project is an online based CAD platform known as OnShape. This platform can be used for part design, assembly visualization, and engineering drawing creation.
Front Assembly View
Assembly Isometric View
Assembly Top View
Mass Body + Shaft Top View
For this project, we used the Lathe to perform a face turn, OD turn, and chamfer on our top bodies. For the lathe, we learned how to do conversational programming, and programmed each of these actions idependently.
We used the HAAS Mill during this project to drill out our center bore for our bearing press-fit. Later down the line, we used it to mill patterns in to catch the compressed air to get it spinning. We also used conversational programming for the Mill (not only the lathe).
This is the basic mass body shape that was produced - it has no designs inscribed, and is not complete. This product has had a face turn (on each side), OD turn, and a chamfer (on each side) applied to it, resulting in the final shape. It was then sanded using increasing grit of sandpaper, moving from a rough 120, to 220, and finally finishing with 400.
We want to accelerate the mass body using compressed air. However, the previous basic mass body shape did not have anything that would allow for the air to catch - the air simply blew off without accelerating the mass body. To fix this issue, we created holes in our mass bodies, a circular pattern around the center of the body. These holes acted as a geometric area where the air could catch and accelerate the mass body.
Our mass body needed something for the bearing to rotate around - we did this in the form of a center post, which is basically a shaft for the bearing to rotate around. The center post is designed to have the bearing press fit on, and has a point at the bottom to grab the surface underneath it.
This is the final finished project for my Gyro. It has all of the parts that I designed and manufactured, all assembled. I used the arbor press to insert the bearing into the various press fits on my gyro top.
Getting to learn how to use the waterjet and the lathe were both challenges to me, as they are somewhat foreign to the tools that I have already learned how to use. The waterjet is somewhat similar to the laser cutter, just with some additional steps. However, the lathe is something that was completely foreign to me, and that I had no idea (even a general idea) on how to operate it. I worked with it briefly, but don't believe that, at this point, I could even attempt to operate it in an individual manner.
While using the lathe, we learned a little bit about conversational programming. I have not programmed anything as of yet, but I was just completely overwhelmed by the complexity involved when it came to conversational programming with such complex machines.
Later when we use the HAAS CNC Mill, I know that I will struggle with doing conversational programming, but with the guidance of our teachers, I'm sure I will begin to at least understand the basics of thew concepts.
During the course of this project, we needed to create Engineering Drawings of our parts to be used later during conversational programming with both the Lathe and the Mill. During this process, our class encountered many technical difficulties, primarily coming from a blocking of WebSocket extensions on the Punahou Wi-Fi network, which prevented us from loading our drawings. Fortunately, I was able to complete my drawings in the small window of time that drawings were available to be edited on the Punahou Wi-Fi network.
While the top was fully designed, we ran into major issues when it came to producing the physical top. This is because the KRLL shop at Punahou only has 1 lathe and 1 mill, and since our class has ~20 students, both of those areas are extreme production bottlenecks. While I was able to quickly get my top turned into the general shape, I was not able to implement my exact design onto my top. Thus, I was forced to redesign. Instead of putting my previous top design onto the top, I created a new design, something that matched what was within the time capabilities for this class.
I ran into some pretty big issues with the press fit on the center post - I didn't know what size was going to allow for a press-fit of the inner diameter of the bearing. Consequentially, I cut too much material off of the center post, and ended up with something that wasn't a press fit. However, I had a saving grace: I had made an elevated bearing stopper on the center post, which allowed me to recut the outer diameter of the center post for the estimated press fit.