Kelly's Machine Tool Warehouse - MD001

**skray775** · 12-24-2011, 09:24 AM

Lot of force on that for sure!! As designed the top of the head dovetail will go to the top of the column dove tails... I think I measured 22 inches from the table to the nose on the drawings.

If needed to I will mill a solid block of steel to replace the 3/8 part. I bolted it for now in case I need to modify it.

BTW milling cast iron is dirty and nasty! LOL not my favorite!

I got all my metal yesterday so I will be making parts the next couple of days.

Originally Posted by pete from TN

Hey man that is a nice workaround for not having to cut out the piece at the bottom of the column. It is much like what Arizonavideo did I think and should work fine altho you may lose some Z axis when it gets to the top. Honestly even though it is made of steel I would seriously consider getting those two pieces of steel Tig welded Together and I would even probably try to gusset it against the base piece to strengthen it. I know it sounds crazy but I have personally broken the factory cast iron mount in use and it cracked completely in half from the weight and force of the millhead and it is the same millhead on my RF45 as on your IH machine. I had to remake the whole Z axis mount. Yeah if I were you I would seriously consider gusseting that thing as you would be amazed at the forces acting upon it. It might even be a source of flex as it is in those pictures. Just a thought. I am not the only one who has had Z issues either it is a source of difficulty on these machines and WHATEVER you can do now to make it solid as a rock I would do it. Good luck with whatever you come up with man and Merry Christmas. Peace

Pete

**skray775** · 12-24-2011, 11:26 PM

Today I was able to get the X axis table spacer cut and and the cross slide milled out.

I also did a lot of drawing.... The X axis motor mount is coded and ready to cut.

**skray775** · 12-25-2011, 09:57 PM

Cut the X and Z motor mounts today as well as the Y axis spacer.

Tomorrow I hope to get the Y mount cut and the spacer drilled and mounted.

**skray775** · 12-26-2011, 05:33 PM

Finished the Y spacer and Y motor mount before lunch today and decided to take the rest of this Boxing Day off.

Those big blocks of aluminum sure did put my little mill through its paces!

**BobWarfield** · 12-27-2011, 10:22 PM

Blast, another cool RF-45 thread to follow. Where will I find the time?

This one got a bunch of pages in short order too!

Love da blue machines. Working on an enclosure for my IH and the chip pan will be that blue.

Cheers,

BW

**skray775** · 12-27-2011, 10:37 PM

Hi Bob, searching all the RF 45 builds could be a full time job!

Just a little work in the shop tonight to get the bearing retainers milled out.

I also sent the mill enclosure drawing to my HVAC contractor to see if he can bend up the pan for me. If not I am thinking of a frame and 3/8" PCV sheet material from AzeK: Solid cellular PVC Sheet | PVC Sheet Manufacturer | AZEK Sheet

I have used this material on many homes including mine and the stuff is fantastic. Easy to cut with a skill saw and you can glue/seal the edges.

**skray775** · 12-28-2011, 11:12 PM

Working on the motor mount and air cylinder drawings. This is what I have so far. Drawing is not close to being finished but you get the idea. I stole the slotted motor mount from one of the other RF45 build threads.

I will be making a new top plate from 1/2" 6061 to replace the cast iron plate and will probably add a bearing to the underside to support the spindle shaft. I did not make the air cylinder swing away for now because itlooks like plenty of room to reach in and change the belt.

**skray775** · 12-29-2011, 10:12 PM

Long afternoon in the shop!!!

I started making my pulley's after a couple of hours grinding tools. The first pulley was working out good and then I cut one to many grooves in the 4" section. That would have worked ok but then I had a major issue while trying to part the pulley off. Scratch one pulley and several hours of work.

I flipped the stock around in the lathe and started over after a Mountain Dew break!!!

After about 6 hours I ended up with 2 nice pulley's

I sure hope the belt fits... I don't have one to test yet!

I still need to bore them out to the proper size but that was all I could do tonight!

**Maglin** · 12-29-2011, 10:26 PM

Looks like they turned out looking pretty nice. What is their diameter on the large pulley? They look pretty large on your lathe.

**skray775** · 12-29-2011, 10:33 PM

Thanks Maglin,

4" and 2"

The lathe is a Enco Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies

I was pushing its limits.

Originally Posted by Maglin

Looks like they turned out looking pretty nice. What is their diameter on the large pulley? They look pretty large on your lathe.

**skray775** · 01-01-2012, 04:46 PM

After thinking over the motor mounting situation again I decided to come up with a simpler solution.

I replaced the existing top plate with a .75" thick 6061 plate. I made a stationary motor mount and will be using a belt tensioner for the belts.

The air cylinder is a floating design that rides on steel studs screwed into the top plate. Steel spacers then sit on top of the studs and a pull up late sits on top of the spacers. Threaded rods go from the air cylinder down through the pull up plate and thread into the steel spacers. For now I am just using left over hardware store all thread until I know the exact height of the wavy washer stack. Once the final height is determined I will make some nice rods to replace those.

In the picture the collar that is attached to the top of the spindle is missing, I still need to make that, the pull up plate will pull up against that collar once it is installed. Also the pulley is not installed on the spindle, I have to finish boring the hole.

For now I have decided not to add another bearing to support the spindle. It will be easy to add to underside of the new top plate if it becomes an issue.

So this setup only has 2 bearings total in the head or 3 if I add one, plus a bearing or 2 in the belt tentioner. The pulley will be attached directly to the spindle so I am hoping for a very quite drive setup.

**skray775** · 01-02-2012, 09:18 PM

I worked out and built the belt tensioner today. It was easier to explain with a movie so I posted one to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PcSbG-z3N0&list=UUlMMLLTMr0tHqu9A_i7mVzg&index=1&feature =plcp]Belt Tensioner For The New Mill - YouTube

**pete from TN** · 01-02-2012, 10:10 PM

Hey man nice work on the belt tensioner. Looks like it should be the business when you get it all wired up. Man that IH clone is gonna be sweet with the AC servos and a belt drive. Looks like your RF31 is working well to help with the conversion. I sure would have liked to have a CNC mill at my disposal when I made my conversion. I bought my daughter a small RC heli for christmas this year and we were playing with it and having a ton of fun so I was thinking of you and your cool heli parts. That is something I could get into easy. Of course this one is one of the dual blade setups with a tail rotor only for vertical movement to pitch the nose down to provide forward momentum. Still it flys real nice and is easy to control. This thing is actually made from some metal parts too and considering the number of violent crashes it has suffered and it is still kicking I am quite impressed with it. The place we bought it had some other LARGER ones that had the typical rotor,tail rotor and basically exactly works like a real heli but they were of course much more expensive. Actually for what this one is and the price it is pretty sweet. I flew it in the shop a bunch of times now but only flew it outside once or twice. If it is NOT windy it flys outside pretty good but if it is windy at all it just gets blown all around....

Having done a lot of sheetmetal parts or rather parts made from thin material I could see me taking on a heli build. Ya know of any plans out there for a decent one? This stuff is real addictive....haha peace

Pete

**skray775** · 01-03-2012, 10:31 PM

Ha.... your hooked! LOL

Now in your spare time you can got the cnczone.com.com and start reading.... it is the cnczone of heli's!

Originally Posted by pete from TN

Hey man nice work on the belt tensioner. Looks like it should be the business when you get it all wired up. Man that IH clone is gonna be sweet with the AC servos and a belt drive. Looks like your RF31 is working well to help with the conversion. I sure would have liked to have a CNC mill at my disposal when I made my conversion. I bought my daughter a small RC heli for christmas this year and we were playing with it and having a ton of fun so I was thinking of you and your cool heli parts. That is something I could get into easy. Of course this one is one of the dual blade setups with a tail rotor only for vertical movement to pitch the nose down to provide forward momentum. Still it flys real nice and is easy to control. This thing is actually made from some metal parts too and considering the number of violent crashes it has suffered and it is still kicking I am quite impressed with it. The place we bought it had some other LARGER ones that had the typical rotor,tail rotor and basically exactly works like a real heli but they were of course much more expensive. Actually for what this one is and the price it is pretty sweet. I flew it in the shop a bunch of times now but only flew it outside once or twice. If it is NOT windy it flys outside pretty good but if it is windy at all it just gets blown all around....

Having done a lot of sheetmetal parts or rather parts made from thin material I could see me taking on a heli build. Ya know of any plans out there for a decent one? This stuff is real addictive....haha peace

Pete

**pete from TN** · 01-03-2012, 10:42 PM

It sure is fun, this thing flies pretty controllably and we can fly it around the shop with relative ease. I tried to fly it outside today and it was a little windy and it kinda kept getting away farther and farther the more I kept it in the air so I wound up just cutting the power and landing in the neighbors yard. The thing does fly good but we managed to break the tail rotor today now it only has one blade instead of two. I can buy another tail rotor for it where we got it tho so no biggie. My daughter is getting better at flying it too. I think we would still be hell on a larger typical heli as we have crashed the hell out of this thing a bunch of times already. I was getting smooth enough to try picking up things with the landing struts today. I flew my daughters hair clip around the family room and put it on the kitchen table before I caught a rotor blade on the table centerpiece and things went bad from there.....haha. I can sure see the attraction tho. I will check out the site you posted....peace

Pete

**skray775** · 01-05-2012, 06:02 PM

It looks like I made a mistake on the ball screw order... I wanted 6 nuts and 3 screws. I ended up with 6 nuts and 6 screws? I need to review the order to see were the mix up is.

Good news is they are in good condition and as before the machining from Liniarmotionbearings is spot on.

Now do I build another machine or try to sell the extra set?

**amishx64** · 01-05-2012, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by kregan

Now do I build another machine or try to sell the extra set?

We all like your rhetorical questions. You are now obliged to build another machine after the first.

**skray775** · 01-05-2012, 09:30 PM

That means the shop needs to be expanded! LOL

I spent the last couple of days doing a full re-arrangment in the shop.
I move the CNC machine on the left over a little, made the barbie scooter PC holder, then mooved the manual mill down to the right. Now I have nice space for the new mill and enclosure in the middle.

I also cleaned out the storage room and moved in all the raw materials, nuts, bolts, parts bins, etc.

Originally Posted by amishx64

We all like your rhetorical questions. You are now obliged to build another machine after the first.