rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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A bit closer view of the cluches. Noe the shaft comming across from the right controls the direction of the lower brass cluch. Iyts handle is on the front of the machine on the bottom. Turn this while the main upper cluch is disengaged and you can turn it in or out...making the upper plate turn faster or slower.
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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This images shows the upper engaging arm that raises the upper clutch plate. You can see it engaging the base under the thrust spring. Turn this large lever on front(top lever) and you disengage the clutch so you can turn the bottom lever to increase/decrease arm/table speed.
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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This shot shows all the control arms coming across to thier particular aspects. The top bar controls the belt tension...bottom is the speed control arm. Lots of fun moving stuff. The rollers can be seen too for the belts.
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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This last images shows the upper control arms(handles) for engageing the large clutch plates...also a bit of the over arms.
I'm gonna have fun rebuilding this monster and getting all the missing parts..like motor and building belts for it.
the table shafts can be removed and I bet I can make new ones. I'll get in touch with Bob to see what I can do.
It will remain outside the shop till I get it in opperating order again...I can work around it much easier this way...then I will roll it in its place in the shop.
Way fun.
Rob
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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Mark Harry
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/05/05
Posts: 3120
Loc: Northeast
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Ahh, for the simplicity of DC drives.....!
Mark
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So many projects, so little time!
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
Ahh, for the simplicity of DC drives.....!
Mark
Indeed. Now I'm looking for a motor that has a reduction to about 50~60 RPM. I have a motor that meets that nearly but I can seam to figure out the electrical connector on it to test it before I attemp using it.
It currently is driven by a chain drive. I'll tinker.
Rob
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
Mark Harry
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/05/05
Posts: 3120
Loc: Northeast
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Since I'm a firm believer in stroke dependent polishing, the reduction on my machine from the gearbox on the spindle motor to the spindle shaft is #40 chain. It never rotates very fast, and has been most satisfactory for the last 12 years. The sprockets and chain were available at the time.
M.
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So many projects, so little time!
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
Since I'm a firm believer in stroke dependent polishing, the reduction on my machine from the gearbox on the spindle motor to the spindle shaft is #40 chain. It never rotates very fast, and has been most satisfactory for the last 12 years. The sprockets and chain were available at the time.
M.
*stroke dependent* polishing...meaning..you can control the stroke on the machine....?
Each over arm can be adjusted for stroke depth and stroke width. As the table turns..the over arms stroke back and forth(that stroke can be adjusted).
The drive on this machine is chain driven(Much larger then the typical bike chain)..looks to be even larger then motorcycle chain. I'll pop the sprocket off and go size it. I ordered the flat belt material..to make the four drive belts required to drive the tables from McMaster-Carr.
I removed one of the spindles from its drive shaft and am going to have it remachined an threaded...getting rid of the taper tip. I'll also have the spindle shaft shortened...so I can use pipe flanges secured to the bottom of my homemade tables. In this way...I can remove them if need be. Plus this will lower the table in the drum, giving me more vertical room for thicker mirrors.
List of things to do to bring this machine into the 21st Century.
1) remove and remachine all 4 spindles.
2) make 4 new flat belts
3) rebuild the drive system
4) build 4 new poker pins using 9/16" rod and welding 1/2 steal balls to their tips
5) build 4 sturdy 15" mirror tables with cleats
6) grease the daylights out of it.
7) (MAYBE) order 4 plano cast iron laps/holders from Universal Photonics.
8) anything else I can think of...... 
Then put it in the shop and put it to work. 
Rob
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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Sky Captain
Metal Whisperer
Reged: 11/07/04
Posts: 7177
Loc: Issaquah, WA.
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Thats pretty cool Rob! How about a guided tour next week at your star party? (As if I needed to ask.)
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Equipment Overload!
Kerry
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Mark Harry
Post Laureate
Reged: 09/05/05
Posts: 3120
Loc: Northeast
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"*stroke dependent* polishing...meaning..you can control the stroke on the machine....?"
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What I meant, was that the stroke is the predominant way I polish; not "spin-polishing"
With the DC drive, I can certainly control the stroke parameters. The arm position also varies the amplitude and offset. A secondary eccentric also allows a variance that never "repeats".
Mark
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So many projects, so little time!
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
Thats pretty cool Rob! How about a guided tour next week at your star party? (As if I needed to ask.)
Guided tours are always part of the GOMOC experience.
Rob(It's easy to find..it's sitting outside the shop door)
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
"*stroke dependent* polishing...meaning..you can control the stroke on the machine....?"
----------------------------
What I meant, was that the stroke is the predominant way I polish; not "spin-polishing"
With the DC drive, I can certainly control the stroke parameters. The arm position also varies the amplitude and offset. A secondary eccentric also allows a variance that never "repeats".
Mark
Yes...I *stroke polish* myself. My Porter polishing machine is exactly what you described.
Looks like this new machine..strokes while allowing the laps to rotate freely on the rotating mirror.
On my Porter..I can also control the rotation of the lap...I can run it in reverse to the mirror.
My hopes are to get this machine in operation as soon as I can and see how it polishes several mirrors at the same time.
Rob
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www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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SkyArcher
Post Laureate
Reged: 04/12/06
Posts: 3444
Loc: 9545' in Colorado
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That machine brings back memories. My first job out of high school was as a gopher for a optical lens company. Among the many stupid things that I had to do was to watch the offset polishers to make sure they didn't clog up and dry out. Just like your machine. Four offset polishers. 30 years later, I still twitch thinking about it.
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Sir Skyler Archibald.....
An 8" Deep Space Hunter
4.5 w/ GOTO
4.5 newt w/ home built Dob mount
Omphaloskepsis - I didn't realize that there is a word for what I do while waiting for web pages to download 
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Quote:
That machine brings back memories. My first job out of high school was as a gopher for a optical lens company. Among the many stupid things that I had to do was to watch the offset polishers to make sure they didn't clog up and dry out. Just like your machine. Four offset polishers. 30 years later, I still twitch thinking about it.
Good memories...huh..
I will be making a cerium pump system too/
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Got some machining done on the polishing machine Saturday(Instead of having a star party).
First I removed all 4 spindles that were too tall and had taper pins at thier tips. Took them to my cousins shop and we remachined them. First I removed the top 3" of the spindle shank. Then chucked them in the lathe and turned them down and turned 1" threads on the ends. So they could hold the 4 cast iron flanges I purchased.
I had to retap them..because they were originally tapered thread.
We also chucked up the flanges and machined true both ends..so they would be flat on the new spindle seats and flat and true for the new tables.
Here is an images of one of the finished remachined spindle and its flange. Threading them was quite fun actually. My first time I ever threaded on a lathe....
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
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rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Here is an image showing tubes 2 and 3 with their newly remachined spindles and thier flanges in place.
The flanges will be mounted to the bottom of each mirror table.
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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With tub 1 in place and the spindle poking through with the flange resting by.
Now things are lower in the tubs and I can make nice mirror tables and not have an issue with the over arms and poker pins being to high.
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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And lastly the flange mounted on the spindle in the copper tub. Next for this project will be mirror tables.
Now I'm going out to the shop to make the 4 2.5" wide leather belts for the drives for each over arm and spindle.
Gonna dig up the motor on an older machine I don't use much and mount it on this machine...it looks like it will work perfectly. 2hp with a 70rpm reduction...It aught to work just fine.....  before I know it this machine will be completely retro fitted and ready to go....Yeah!
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Spent some time in the shop(while the thunderstorms ripped the place up)...and built the 4 flat leather belts for the table/over arm drives on my new polishing machine.
Here are the belts done after I cut them to length and fitted the spine rings and pins. The spine tool for the seams is resting there in the right forground. this tool is so slick. You simply put the clamping rings in it run a guid pin tyhrough them to keep them aligned and press in your belt.....then place the entire thing in your shop vice and clamp the snott out of it. This causes the spine neadle tips to press inot the leather and holds fast. Then you fix both ends together with a grooved keeper pin.
This was fun to do. Reminds me of the leather tooling I did when I was a kid in shop class.
Rob(ready to be fitted on the machine)
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
rwiederrich
Goldfinger
Reged: 11/17/05
Posts: 8305
Loc: Bremerton Washington
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Belts fitted and snugged up. these kinds of belts are so easy to put on and adjust.
Notice the spindles with their flanges...and how much lower they rest compared to the bench top...where in a previous image you can see the taper pins well above the top of the machine and tubs. 2 main retro items finished.
Now just to fit the scavanged motor to the drive chain....and weld up 4 poker pins.
Once this is done...I simply have to cut out 4 tables and mount them to the flanges.
I'm so excited to test run it.
Rob
--------------------
www.goldmtobservingcenter.com
A great place for amateur astronomers, and ATM's to come and enjoy their hobby.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/HomemadeRefractorTelescopes/ My homemade refractor group.
www.vimeo.com/6014031
|
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