Hey man, I was thinking about you this morning. Looks like I'm gonna be moving on the 20th of next month so I get all my gear back from storage. If you need castings of stuff, let me know. I should be ready to start melting aluminum again by the 25th

It's a smaller foundry, so about a quart of aluminum is the biggest pour i can do for now.

Hey Jim, there is a much simpler way to find center. Leave the chuck mount bolts loose, bring the spindle down, then use the three jaw chuck and clamp on the spindle. Tighten chuck to table. No indicating required. Usually will get you less than .001 doing it that way.

Incredible skills! I would love one of the Fuchs wheels for a paper weight on my desk. Maybe with a tire on it if possible. Let me know what it would run once you are in production.
Thanks,
Michael

Thanks, Jeff!

It's centered pretty good now. the needle hardly moves away from the white line it is pointing at. The chrome socket worked wonders...

and... I didn't want to lose my 'z' setting. it's perfect right now.



Michael, thank you! will do.

Those wheels look great. Is there a waiting list for a full set?

Drew, yes. Some have even paid to help cover R&D on the project. (and; Jamie from Japan, and Jeff From CA, have sent tooling and offered up suggestions/advice to help with the learning curve)


The pictures below:

the larger stack are all sliced and squared and ready to be cutdown to size.

to make them look like the other stack. They are all squared up from where the band saw cut crooked. (put them on the lathe for this) after the lathe, they went to the mill because it is set up to run from the computer and it cuts them to size more quickly than I could do by hand on the lathe.

If you have any access to a surface grinder would be a good time to very gently surface grind them to a perfect flat finish on both sides. It makes a better product and setting up in the CNC is a bit easier and they come out much nicer.

Or like another member mentioned....it might be better to make some kind of mold and just pour the molten alloy into it...can you say "INVESTMENT CASTING" ...this is actually an old technique they use to make jewellery with a "lost wax" or wax melting process...not too expensive and easy to machine but you would need a foundry friend who seems to be offering his services.

Jamie, thank you for the tip.

I'll probably be getting ahold of rohar on the phone sometime within the next month. He seems to be busy with a move at the moment, and I still need to make a perfect finished product.

It's getting closer each day, and I'm pretty excited about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFuoWOW0EY8

a friend wrote a perl script for me to run a spiral to cut the wheel blanks out. These things are getting easier to cut out and much more efficient.

Now if that solder joint in the spindle speed controller would stop vibrating out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HJrrBthN0c

So pretty. I love watching a mill go. It just makes me happy. A big old bridgeport just came available over here. So tempting...

The 4th axis is back into action!

It was off-center and needed rebuilt.

The collar has two arrays of set screws. the bottom array is for holding the 3 jaw chuck onto the rotary table; the top array is for centering the 3 jaw chuck by finite adjustments to the screws, similar to how a 4 jaw chuck works.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vungG6hc0JE

The wheels are getting closer...

The main code is worked out and tested on the 4th axis; the wheel blanks are sitting on deck; and the jigs are built.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hGLwPHZTOw

That's cool

update pic:

I am really making some good progress now.

I did some more. I have a stack of about 50 wheels in the making.

Keep going I can hardly wait! I'm going to paint mine to match my the ones on the Alien.

Yes sir.

I kept going!

This is the last of the narrow ones being made into blanks.

OK...I dont have go fast rc's,but...I have 2.2 rockcrawlers.Pleeeaase make me some 2.2 bead lock fuchs!!I know itd be a pain in the ass,but...Lets face it,you could sell a boatload of em for shitsure.

is 2.2 the diameter? PM me... I'd need a sample to work with.

This is great to see.
Are you ready to start production, or are you still setting the tune for the mill?

Zach

This IS production now.

I'll be shipping them out before October is over. They are high priority so I can move on to the next project.

There are 12 sets and at the moment half of them are spoken for.

Where can I get a resistor like this?

This is how far I got before the resistor had too many heat cycles and failed. The vibrations and heat cycles...


And I was making such good progress! The ones on the far left have both front and rear rough cuts done.

THe middle ones have the back cuts done, and the far right are the right size of blanks.

If the color from right to left is: brown, green, red, gold the value is 1.5K ohms +/- 5%. Hard to tell in your picture. http://www.mouser.com/?cm_mmc=google-_-ppc...CFQd6gwod_URr4g

indeed!

seems like everytime I start making progress on these I find a new 'weak link' in my mill.



new spindle controller and spindle motor were required from that resistor repair gone bad. pics coming up...

This is what I got accomplished today. The Super PID came from New Zealand and will allow me to control the spindle speed from the same computer that controls the mill.

This is very exciting; I can't wait to order one for my desk. Will you have the option of buying them with appropriate cool tires?
Thanks and good luck.

That's cool Jim. It's always interesting to see what your up against. Your not only milling custom wheels your building your mill and controller. Way over my head.

How they coming?

Me too checking in and hope all health issues are going well.

I know something y'all don't know.
I'll let Jim do the update though.
Zach

Not fair!

I took a break to work on 'me'. :-)

Zach, can you post a link to my photo album that documents what I just overcame?

I am posting from my phone while working on the wheels...

pics of me 'almost dead' and then 'now'.

I can get back to work now, I hope.

Zach's been watching the pics...

and knows I am working on the wheels this week.

They say what doesn't kill us make us stronger but.... Good to read your back doing something. I believe doing something rewarding and brings the feeling of accomplishment is one of our healing powers. Do a little everyday. It will make you smile.

In short, Jim has gone from this:


to this:


And a whole bunch of personal as well as health turn arounds as well.

I don't know the whole story, but I know its been a heck of a rough ride.
Zach

Man these things are bitchin!

Click to view attachment

Posting this pic for Jim since he doesn't have intertubes at home...

Click to view attachment

Spindle is a go. :-) 5000rpm on the tach and it spins up smoooooth!

Awesome Jim! Hey if there is still a wheel set available, sign me up would ya?

That thing is crazy! I'm going to have to keep those wheels for the concours shows. There too nice for track wheels!

Any news?

Bump for an update?

waiting on new optical sensors from NZ or Australia... my spindle ate mine.

Ordered them a little under two weeks ago, should be here soon.

I bet it drives you nuts when your equipment stops. Keep us posted!

I check the mailbox daily with anticipation!

my blog has pictures of what I've been doing while I wait. The router table has been getting some use of the linux box and router/spindle motor. I've been running it WOT at 35k RPM and cutting at 200-240 ipm through .25 inch plywood to cut some 3d puzzles. not goin to post pics here, just to stay this thread on focus of the wheels.

yeah... I've been going nuts waiting for the optical sensors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k78mruCuVk0

If any sets are still available, I'd love to get a set of the wheels.