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Showing results for tags 'radial axis'.
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For a little project a set of wood balls were ordered from the jungle store. A week later and they still hadn't been shipped. Cancelled that order and set about seeing if I could make my own. Step 1. Find a scrap of wood at least 1.5" x 1.5" x 10" or so. Got close. Had a scrap of hard maple salvaged from a retired computer desk project. Larger in cross section than I needed so I trimmed it down to 1.5 x 1.5 with two passes through my table saw. Mounted it on my radial axis. Screwed one end into a hex block I made many years back to hold it in the 3-jaw chuck. Moulding toolpath created in Aspire. First finish pass left flat spots on the spheres. Reset Z atop a flat spot and ran that finish pass again. Next step required 3/8" diameter holes on each ball. Made an X/Y/Z toolpath, using the vectors created for cutting the row of balls to verify spacing down the row. Next the balls were cut apart using my bandsaw. The nubs left needed to be removed. Sticking an aluminum rod into the holes made let me chuck them up one-at-a-time in the radial axis. Used the hex nut between ball and tailstock point to help hold the ball secure. Made up a toolpath I hoped would just cut the nubs off. Ran it once and found it cut a bit more of the sphere surface than I expected. Then realized I had a variable speed mini-lathe in my garage shop. Clean it off, remounted the tailstock and tool rest. Found a reasonably sharp skew chisel to use. Trimmed off the nubs. Sanded through 120, 180, 240, 320 to smooth the surface of each one. 20 minutes later I had 4 wood ball feet for my project. Less expensive than buying them. Scrap was free. My investment in the time require well worth it as a mental exercise to figure out steps needed to produce them. 4D
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This will be the center post of a small table project idea I have. Left and right threads, 45 degrees, walnut, on my radial axis. I've ordered a side cutting V bit that hopefully will cut the inner threads of the nuts. I'll post the final project if it actually works out. Took some brain scraping thoughts to get the toolpaths made. Used the rounding gadget in Aspire to turn a 1.5" square block into a .15"d cylinder. Had to play with the feed speed to get a good spiraling cut with the V-bit. Some harmonic vibration as the bit got closer to the center which I dampened with my hand under it as it slowly spun. 4D
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- radial axis
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