Todays Project - What did you do today?

[tackit]

Thanks Mayhem.

[DaveH]

Tackit

DaveH

[tackit]

Thanks you Dave. I still have to close the ends and make a hinged cover to protect the switches from the weather and tree branches then I'll mount it on the tractor and start wiring it up.

[Hawkeye]

As an electrician, I do repair work for a couple of District Municipalities (towns) near here. Today, the maintenance chief at one of them wanted a power kiosk in one of the parks converted to ground-fault outlets so that the permitted users wouldn't be constantly tripping the breaker by overloading the one GFI they had available. There was a small panel on the kiosk that fed two split-wired receptacles, which weren't GFI protected.

Since the existing receptacles are standard type, while GFIs are rectangular, it seemed that using a mill to cut the plates was a good idea. It was an easy step to use the CNC mill for the job. Here's the pair of plates as removed from the panel, along with one of the GFI outlets to be mounted in it.
   

It didn't take too long to work up the drawing and convert it to G-code for the two rectangular cut-outs in each plate. Fairly easy to clamp it to the table over a piece of sacrificial wood and set up the 0,0 point.
   

A bit of cleaning up with a file, plus a pair of mounting holes for each receptacle, and the job is done. I'll be back in that town on Friday and will install them then.
   

[DaveH]

Nice neat job Mike

DaveH

[tackit]

(06-04-2014, 10:49 PM)Hawkeye Wrote: As an electrician, I do repair work for a couple of District Municipalities (towns) near here. Today, the maintenance chief at one of them wanted a power kiosk in one of the parks converted to ground-fault outlets so that the permitted users wouldn't be constantly tripping the breaker by overloading the one GFI they had available. There was a small panel on the kiosk that fed two split-wired receptacles, which weren't GFI protected.

Since the existing receptacles are standard type, while GFIs are rectangular, it seemed that using a mill to cut the plates was a good idea. It was an easy step to use the CNC mill for the job. Here's the pair of plates as removed from the panel, along with one of the GFI outlets to be mounted in it.


It didn't take too long to work up the drawing and convert it to G-code for the two rectangular cut-outs in each plate. Fairly easy to clamp it to the table over a piece of sacrificial wood and set up the 0,0 point.


A bit of cleaning up with a file, plus a pair of mounting holes for each receptacle, and the job is done. I'll be back in that town on Friday and will install them then.

Very nice Hawkeye. Those CNC machines are cool. I don't know if I could learn to operate one but they sure are fun to watch.

[TomG]

Nice job getting those cut out Mike. The steel they use in electrical boxes and panels isn't the best stuff to machine.

Tom

[Hawkeye]

That's the first time I've tried steel. Up to now, I've only done plastic and aluminum, so it gets a bit nervewracking pushing the button on steel the first time. Add to that the fact that the motor control on the mill is a bit twitchy. It kept running through both cutting sequences, fortunately.

[arvidj]

The following is certainly nowhere near the scale or skill level of everything else in this thread, but I wanted to share it anyway.

When I opened the mailbox on Wednesday I was pleasantly surprised to see an unexpected package from Ed. I opened it and found two "clamp spacers" ...

   

On Thursday morning I set about the task of installing them. First was to gather the tools ...

   

A center punch, a drill, an air hose and a scrap 2x6 seemed appropriate. Not shown is the belt\disk sander. The red Yaris was not a required tool, it just happened to be there. The beautiful sunny morning was a very welcome bonus.

After one side trip to the Drill Doctor in the basement ... I have an inexpensive 115 bit set that came pre-dulled from the manufacturer. The bits have actually turned out to be quite good given the low initial cost but I have to remember to run them thru the sharpener before first use ... we were ready for assembly and testing.

   

This pictures shows several things. First is that the photographer should learn how to use his camera. Had he taken the time to RTFM before taking the picture he would have known how to define the area that he wanted the camera to focus on. Instead he end up with a clear picture of the fine selection of bird feeders Bev has in the front yard. Picture composition aside, we also see that the assembly was successful and the testing went well.

In summary, I want to thank Ed for the totally unexpected surprise. I do appreciate it!!

[EdK]

You're very welcome Arvid. It didn't take long to make them using my Enco bandsaw to cut the pieces to rough length and then a trip to the mini-lathe to face them off and drill and tap for the screws. The stock was from a dumpster dive so no cost to me.

Ed