Functional Lathe center
Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2014 10:48 pm
Hi,
This is a part I printed yesterday for my mini Sherline lathe. I've been using the lathe to machine parts for my Tri hotend. Then I put the Tri hotend on my Rostock, printed out a custom steady rest/center for the lathe, and now I can use it to machine more parts.
It seems like most of the 3d prints people are doing now are artistic, aesthetic, or non functional, but this is a good example of a perfectly functional machine tool part that would normally cost a ton of money. Actually, something like this isn't even for sale as far as I know! Around a dollar in plastic to print.
The blue part is trimmer line nylon, which is good for abrasion resistance and low friction. The green part is ABS, which is more rigid. Rigidity is important on machine tools, and the first picture shows a 1 inch aluminum round bar spinning at ~2500 RPM. The point of the center is to keep it concentric and eliminate torque on the chuck jaws for longer parts. There are also three holes in the big green piece for screws with PTFE dimes on them. They are adjustable in size for bar stock 1.75 inches to 0.5 inches. The blue part is more like a collet, and only fits 1 inch stock.
You can see some half finished Tri hotends on the side. It's true reprap stuff here; the lathe makes the Tri hotend parts, the Tri hotend makes the lathe parts (and everything else). Once we get more rigid plastics for printing, it is definitely possible to make a small lathe or mill. Some parts will still have to be steel, like chucks, collets, cutting tools, and ball bearings. But it is definitely possible to make functional parts like this.
I'm going to try to make an entire indexing tailstock soon, which would help a lot with tool change times. That will be another thread.
I'm not making all of the Tri hotends on this, just the early beta units.
This is a part I printed yesterday for my mini Sherline lathe. I've been using the lathe to machine parts for my Tri hotend. Then I put the Tri hotend on my Rostock, printed out a custom steady rest/center for the lathe, and now I can use it to machine more parts.
It seems like most of the 3d prints people are doing now are artistic, aesthetic, or non functional, but this is a good example of a perfectly functional machine tool part that would normally cost a ton of money. Actually, something like this isn't even for sale as far as I know! Around a dollar in plastic to print.
You can see some half finished Tri hotends on the side. It's true reprap stuff here; the lathe makes the Tri hotend parts, the Tri hotend makes the lathe parts (and everything else). Once we get more rigid plastics for printing, it is definitely possible to make a small lathe or mill. Some parts will still have to be steel, like chucks, collets, cutting tools, and ball bearings. But it is definitely possible to make functional parts like this.
I'm going to try to make an entire indexing tailstock soon, which would help a lot with tool change times. That will be another thread.
I'm not making all of the Tri hotends on this, just the early beta units.