PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Ok to answer Rob's question regarding the mount...it will be a Paramount and the group has requested the total weight be under 120 pounds and at present I think with camera, filter wheel, and focuser we are just over 100 pounds...
So yesterday we did the collimation half spheres.
Heres turning the radius after drilling and tapping for 10-32.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Finished half spheres threaded on the collimation rods and half sphere washers that allow the tilt of the rods without binding. These parts took about 4 hours from start to finish. 
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Next sawing off some 1/2 inch pieces of 0.540 inch diameter CF tubing to be bonded between the two CF Mirror Mount plates at the collimation points to strengthen and stiffen the exact area where the CF will be bonded to the Secondary Mirror.
The 6 inch long 0.710 inch diameter Spider Vane tubes were cut in the same manor.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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And a trial assemble dry of all the CF pieces.
We cut the 5.7 inch diameter by 1/2 inch long ring for the Mirror Mounting plate in the front. The 3 small tubes are inside and we need to cut some other ribs tomorrow before starting to bond the assembly together.
The Spider Vane Assembly is complete, but lacks the 3 collimation holes...something was wrong in the Gcode and we could not machine them on the CNC the other day, so we'll do it by hand tomorrow.
It's starting to look like a carbon fiber Spider
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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And a high angle shot of the previous spider and mirror mount.
We need to machine the O-ring to mount on the short cf tube that will locate that tube within the larger one attached to the vanes.
Enjoy 
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 5981
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
And a trial assemble dry of all the CF pieces.
We cut the 5.7 inch diameter by 1/2 inch long ring for the Mirror Mounting plate in the front. The 3 small tubes are inside and we need to cut some other ribs tomorrow before starting to bond the assembly together.
The Spider Vane Assembly is complete, but lacks the 3 collimation holes...something was wrong in the Gcode and we could not machine them on the CNC the other day, so we'll do it by hand tomorrow.
It's starting to look like a carbon fiber Spider
Where is the worship button....where is the worship button.......Oh here... 
How will you be bonding the puzzle pieces together?
Rob(I only know mig welding...and super glue with an acetone catalyst) 
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
Providing a great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Hi Rob, I'll be calling Tech Support tomorrow at Aerocomposites where I purchased all of the materials as IF I remember correctly the head guy there recommended JB Weld...
We will test that tomorrow and call him...
Regards,
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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Mike I. Jones
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 07/02/06
Posts: 1102
Loc: Fort Worth TX
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I really like this off-center spider design - by tensioning the vanes, this design counters the tendency to have rotational vibration around the hub and low-order mode vibration in the vanes. It will be most interesting to see what natural frequencies this assembly resonates at. I'm betting they're quite high and have very low amplitudes.
The CF guys at my day job tell me good old JB Weld is about as good as anything at bonding CF. No doubt Preston will be using a bonding compound available only to non-terrestrial civilizations
Mike
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56 mirrors, lenses, 16" f/6 Newt, 6" f/10 refractor, TOA-130S, Tinsley 5" f/15 Mak, 6" f/4 RFT, Coronado PST. Still to build: 24" f/10 Modified Dall-Kirkham, 10" f/26 Mak, 8" f/12 apo, spectrohelioscope, Herrig, Schupmann, and a new design you'll like.
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Michael Miles
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/11/05
Posts: 604
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It's a gorgeous, ephemeral thing, Preston.
My compliments,
Michael
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LXD-75 w/
Stellarvue 102ED
Hardin 10" Newt
Antares 8" Newt
Meade AR-5
Meade N-6
Celestron 102mm refractor
Canon 300D, Meade DSI guiding
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Yes Mike, the magic is in the "Magic Mouse Milk" where in one finds a Magic mouse and then proceeds to try to milk the little thing...getting in the end " Magic Mouse Milk"
We will not go into the details...they are Government Classified....
Milking the Magic Mouse that is....
As to the off axis Spider he's government issue 
and available to any Spy 
Lets just use more Duct Tape....
Best Regards,
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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Mike I. Jones
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 07/02/06
Posts: 1102
Loc: Fort Worth TX
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"Magic Mouse Milk"? WHAAAT??? Hoo boy, I think Preston has been sniffing too many JB Weld fumes tonight! Or the wine's particularly tasty this evening. I'd stay out of the shop for a while if I were you 
OK I iz jus teasin. You're one of the finest, and certainly most well documented, machinists and CF experts Cloudynights may have ever seen. Keep this stuff comin'. Wanna see stars with that thing here pretty soon now.
Mike
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56 mirrors, lenses, 16" f/6 Newt, 6" f/10 refractor, TOA-130S, Tinsley 5" f/15 Mak, 6" f/4 RFT, Coronado PST. Still to build: 24" f/10 Modified Dall-Kirkham, 10" f/26 Mak, 8" f/12 apo, spectrohelioscope, Herrig, Schupmann, and a new design you'll like.
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Thanks Mike, It's a Great opportunity to have someone of your caliber on Cloudynights to help with optical questions and design...we are all very lucky and really appreciate all of you kind help
As to Magic Mouse Milk...that is a Cold War term that I first heard used by my father. He was in charge of gyroscope development for Rockwell International and developed gyros for the Minuteman missle system among others...anything classified and talked about in a presentation was refered to MMM or if someone ask
Magic Mouse Milk
We cannot hardly wait for first light. But its the little details that eat up the time...like yesterday morning, had to make that extension for the saw to cut the CF tube...tool 3 hours
Anyway, thanks for all of your help.
Best Regards,
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 5981
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
Thanks Mike, It's a Great opportunity to have someone of your caliber on Cloudynights to help with optical questions and design...we are all very lucky and really appreciate all of you kind help
As to Magic Mouse Milk...that is a Cold War term that I first heard used by my father. He was in charge of gyroscope development for Rockwell International and developed gyros for the Minuteman missle system among others...anything classified and talked about in a presentation was refered to MMM or if someone ask
Magic Mouse Milk
We cannot hardly wait for first light. But its the little details that eat up the time...like yesterday morning, had to make that extension for the saw to cut the CF tube...tool 3 hours
Anyway, thanks for all of your help.
Best Regards,
Preston
Special tool-up or rigging can take way longer than the actual job. Just rigging up the jig to aid in the bending and welding of the roller ribs on my tank OTA is nearly a major operation in of itself....
You been JB welding...?
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
Providing a great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Thanks Micheal...Rob, no cut 21 pieces of 0.71" dia CF tubing to use as reinforcement in the Mirror Mount plate assembly. Bonded between the 2 CF plates it will act almost like honeycomb.
Likely will not start to bond the assembly until tomorrow of Saturday...
Working on the spider vane end blocks in CAD to do the CAM and get some Gcode out...then we'll see if the CNC router is up to cutting some aluminum, as that will save a bunch of time over me having to manually do them on the Brigeport.
In addition I pulled my back this morning and standing, sitting or just about anything is uncomfortable right now...hoping the CNC router will take some of the strain away.
Regards,
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Update, I've been cutting the Vane End Clamping blocks on the CNC router out of 6061 t-6 aluminum today...actually just trying to finish the last part of the 4th block.
We are able to do the 4 lightening holes and the outside profile. Total time per block including mounting in the fixture and removing is about 55 minutes.
We are doing a 0.50 inch depth per pass so it takes 10 passed to get through the 1/2 inch thick block.
We'll still have some manual time on the Bridgeport mill as I'm not comfortable going with a bit smaller than the 0.250 twin flut carbide.
I'll post the pics tomorrow for the past 2 days.
This is SO nice
Regards,
Preston
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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So I'm worn out and now have time to post some pics...
This is the first aluminum machined on our CNC router. It's not perfect, but considering each piece was finished in just under an hour...we'll take it.
This is one of the Vane End Capture blocks.
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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The last pic was actually the second step in the operation.
First we had a MDF holding fixture that the aluminum block just fit into snuggly. We then machined the 4 half inch diameter lightening holes and used these to be able to clamp from the inside so the outside of the block was free to machine.
This pic is of drilling the 10 holds in each block that will clamp the end of the spider vane. These were a real pain as everything had to be done with the DRO (digital read out) on the Bridgeport Mill...very easy to screw up, but again we were lucky and didn't goof up.
After the holes were drilled we milled a step 0.290" deep by 1 inch wide that can be seen in the finished pics.
Following this the hole in the rounded end was drilled and tapped for 1/4-28 for the adjusting bolt that tensions the spider.
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Here are the 4 main bodies of the End Vane Catch Blocks.
You can see the end hole to adjust tension in the block that is propped up. The 10 small holes in each block the will hold the 2 vane tips are threaded 10-32.
When the material for the little backing plates that will clamp on the Main body arrives we will machine the 8 needed.
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Here you can see the relationship of the end block and the end of the spider. When we make the 8 little backing plates, they will bolt into the threaded holes showing around the end of the vane.
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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We cut the .710" diameter CF tubes and have placed them where they will stiffen the Mirror Mounting plate around the collimation screws.
You can see the little half sphere washers on the top part of the mirror mount Plate that will get bonded to the lower part with all of the little tubes.
--------------------
A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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