A Few Machines from my Workshop

[TomG]

(10-08-2013, 02:57 AM)awemawson Wrote: The Interact literally 'fell off a lorry' when moving here and was a total write off.

I thought I was the only one to have experienced that dreadful feeling. During a move in one of the shops I used to work at, the movers literally "lost" a South Bend lathe driving to the new location. They went back and found what was left of it along the road. Machines were never meant to be put on a truck, or handled by incompetent movers.

The lathe didn't belong to me, but it was still a painful experience just the same.

Tom

[Mayhem]

Ed - we need a bigger one of these for this thread:



That is some serious and very nice equipment you have there Andrew. I had been following your CNC thread on MM and it is amazing what goes into making them work.

So what is the plan for the robotic arm? Personally, I'd have it set up to get me a beer from the fridge and open it for me. Or to answer my phone, as my wife always calls me when I'm under a car, in the middle of a cut or when my hands are covered in grease!

[PixMan]

Amazingly well-equipped shop for an electrical guy....envious I am!

[DaveH]

Not only am I suffering from "Machine Envy," I think I am now in "Machine Depression"

DaveH

[awemawson]

(10-08-2013, 09:34 AM)Mayhem Wrote: Ed - we need a bigger one of these for this thread:



That is some serious and very nice equipment you have there Andrew. I had been following your CNC thread on MM and it is amazing what goes into making them work.

So what is the plan for the robotic arm? Personally, I'd have it set up to get me a beer from the fridge and open it for me. Or to answer my phone, as my wife always calls me when I'm under a car, in the middle of a cut or when my hands are covered in grease!

Well Mayhen - it came as a freebie with the Beaver Partsmaster. I have an idea in the back of my head to have it holding my Hypertherm 900 plasma cutter in it's hand and cut profiles in plate steel. It only needs 2 dimensions for that but it probably takes up less space than a cnc gantry type plasma table. It's not top of the 'roundtuit' list by quite a way at the moment. Being an 'Arcmaster' it is proof against the interference of the arcing inherent in these things.

[oldgoaly]

Nice stuff Andrew! Welcome!
induction furnace? boy I was on the trail of one many years ago, when you have time expand our knowledge here by a tour of it's operation! my "hotshop" is way under powered electrically.

[awemawson]

OK by popular demand here are some pictures of the induction furnace driver and it's electronics as they were delivered to my last place. Can't get at it to take more pictures as it is jammed in a corner of the 'awaiting projects' shed :)

[awemawson]

It takes in 415V AC three phase, rectifies it, and chops it at a frequency determined by the resonant frequency of it's internal bank of capacitors, and the external coil that is wrapped around the crucible. The blue box is connected to the furnace body by four 3/4" heavy wall rubber pipes that have very thick stranded copper (actually welding) cable passing up them. Coolant passes though the pipes, round the coil in the furnace (which is copper tube) and through the components of the blue electronics cabinet. I also have a 15kW chiller to keep this coolant below critical temperature. The coolant is the 'food grade' ethanol glycol.

It was working splendidly before I moved but has been in storage for the last six years so I hope it still works. No doubt there will be teething troubles. The circulating currents in the water cooled cables are measured in thousands of amps

I used to run it off a 100 kVA generator but here I've had a 160 amp per phase 415v three phase supply laid on so can hopefully run it off the mains. I was measuring 150 amps per phase off the poor old generator at the last place for short periods

[doubleboost]

This is proper stuff
3 phase supply
Keep the pictures coming
John

[awemawson]

Well John, when we moved here (which is a small farm) there was only single phase to the house, and a bit of wet string powering the barn that was to become my workshop. However on Penny's vegetable patch there is a whacking great 11kV to 415v three phase transformer, so as it's only 50 foot from the barn three phase was possible. I put in an application, and within the week a yellow coated man from EDF was at the gate - I assumed to discuss my three phase. Oh no, he wanted to negotiate a wayleave for access to the transformer and their overhead poles. As I said to him, I had no doubt whatsoever that a wayleave could be granted just as soon as I got my three phase supply, so I actually got it installed F.O.C.