The Violette Makerspace

Our family makerspace is something that all of us use when making stuff.  We have a wide collection of tools and can build or fix just about anything.  Just a listing of things at the moment, I hope to add more pics and perhaps videos in the future (once it is clean, which is almost never...)

Metal working Machines: 

Fabrication:

Woodworking:

Laser Cutting:

Urethane/Silicone Casting:

3D Printing:

Electronics:

Automotive:

Sherline Lathe/Mill Feb 2023

A friend at work had an old (and crusty) Sherline Lathe/Milling machine available for sale.  

It is a Sherline 4000 series lathe with the optional head stock attachment.  It was made in July of 1977, so it's almost as old as I am!

I fully disassembled the entire machine, degreased and scrubbed everything.  Whatever had been used for grease/oil had long ago turned to a sticky varnish.

I oiled and reassembled all the parts for the X and Z axes on the lathe.  The tapered gibs needed adjustment, and a couple missing parts needed to be made.  There were several dings in the dovetail way which were stoned out.  I believe the ways are bronze.

The tailstock had the original locking screws removed and were replaced with an eyebolt and a wing nut.  The tailstock ram was rotated out of position and dinged due to the wrong locking screw.  I repurposed a couple small indexing handles, and cleaned up the ram, and got it working smoothly and locking properly.

The headstock was also checked, and the bearings were found to have some lumpiness, and will need to be replaced.  The motor was mounted on what appeared to be a weird erector set type plate.  The V drive belt was replaced with a large o-ring.  The motor switch and variable speed were hanging off the rear of the motor, and the L bracket that mounts the motor was bent.  I was able to straighten the weak die cast aluminum (?) L bracket, remove the weird plate, rewire the motor and shift the switch to the other end to make it more compact.  I also cleaned and refurbished the motor while I had it disassembled. 

The 3 jaw chuck appears to be in decent shape, and was disassembled, cleaned and oiled.

The vertical axis was also disassembled, cleaned and oiled.

The Z axis lathe power feed appears to be a synchronous AC gear motor.  It only buzzes when the switch is turned on.  It no longer rotates, so it will have to be replaced.  

It is missing a few parts that will be needed to get it operational, but they are all still available for purchase: https://www.sherline.com/

I need a tailstock chuck and #0 Morse adapter, I'll need a set of collets for the head stock and some end mill holders, lathe tooling, additional lathe tool holders, I may use a tiny Palmgren vise I already have as a milling vise, but it's really tiny - I will likely have to make something larger.  I'll also need to make a larger tooling plate and some small clamps to hold workpieces.

12 Ton Press Design & Build

I have long wanted a 12-20 ton press for the shop, but due to the size of their traditional footprint and the ≈$200+ price tag, I have never bought one.  I have a upcoming project to upgrade the front suspension in our Tesla Model 3 Performance (the pretty blue anodized upper A arms), so I wanted to put together a proper press that I could build from scrap steel from the dump, and would fold up to fit in my tiny shop.  In the composite shop picture above, behind the arbor press, you can see the hack of threaded rod and square steel & aluminum tube that I used to swap out the suspension bushings on our old Camaro.  Not again...  

I had "sourced" some 7 foot long pieces of 2" x 3" rectangular steel and some 8 foot lengths of 1.5" x 3" steel channel from the scrap metal pile at the local transfer station (town dump).  I am always on the lookout for material like this for many projects.  These pieces happen to be ideal for this design.  I designed the press to work with the material I had on hand, so it is 24" wide and 6 feet tall.   I also had some 1/2" plate and a Ø1" steel bar on hand to make the pins for the movable lower shelf.  I had a single garage door spring left over from somewhere, so I can cut it in half to make the return springs.  I am planning a rotating lower foot that allows the whole stand to fold down to 6" thick so I can tuck it in a corner when not in use.  I plan to use some hammered finish paint, or some simple brush on black paint.  

UPDATE 3/25/22:

The Press is complete, except for the foot.  For the time being, I simply clamp it to the column in the middle of my garage when in use.  I already used it to press in a couple of the new suspension bushings, the first task for this machine.  I have a couple more to press this weekend, and will get Jarvis set up for street or track use.

I still need to complete the rotating lower foot and also get some paint on it, but I am very pleased with how this project came together just using scrap material and stuff I had on hand.  

Glowforge Setup

So, the Glowforge is the most recent addition to our Makerspace.  It's a very capable 40 Watt laser cutter that works on a variety of non-metallic materials.  As the warmer weather has arrived here in the early summer of 2020, I needed to install a new air conditioner in the same window where I had been venting the laser.  I decided to combine a AC mount with a sliding door vent for the Glowforge into one assembly.  I started with a 7.5" wide 8' long PVC board that is 0.75" thick.  I trimmed the length down to the width of the window.  I trimmed a second piece to fill the 1.5" wide groove where the window typically seals, and attached it to the bottom of the vertical board.  I then CNC machined a hole in the vertical board to suit the dryer vent hood, and removed the sheet metal section and screw mounted the hood in the hole.  I then 3D printed a slider with the same features as the vent hood, and popped the sheet metal tube into the slider.  A remaining piece of board was used as a shelf to mount the AC unit, adding a simple dado cut.  Finally, the last piece of the PVC board was machined to have an oval slot and a slider relief to allow the slider to shift from the closed to open position by simply shifting the exhaust hose.  I am very pleased with the result, and it should also function well with the AC unit removed for the winter.

Organization...

Like most Makers, I tend to have a "Collection" of stuff to be used to fix things,  improve things, or combine together into new stuff.  Trying to keep this stuff organized and easily accessible is important, especially when you have other makers using the same space.  I have recently started watching the YouTube "Tested" channel, specifically Adam Savage's one-day builds.  In this episode,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OPSbF6kM9k&t=159s  Adam shows his Sortimo cases and racks.  I love the idea, but can't afford the Sortimo brand cases.  Plus, I already had a collection of about 10 Stanley Sortmaster cases, which while not quite as fancy, they work for me.  I designed up a welded steel rack, made of angle steel, and finally had time to construct it over the 2018 holiday vacation break.  To make the foot print and caster wheeled base more stable, I added a steel rack onto the rear of the unit for larger plastic bins of less often used larger hardware.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.  It holds all 30 of my cases, and it's beyond strong enough.