Scratch Build – In Progress Metaversa 02: Ada

Like it muchly!

 

I've lost track of the number of times I've used the word awesome, but Awesome!
You could have shaved a few mm off either end of that sensor too, but it looks like you have a mile of space anyway.
-Waiting now for you to make sexy O-ring seats. They are fun when you get them right.

 

I may shave the sensor a bit. Although I measured carefully, it turns out the plug tap doesn't quite reach the bottom of a hole, so I couldn't screw them in as far as I wanted.

 

Another small update. As I am designing the PCB for the IN-14 nixie display (an adaptation of the Ogi Lumen kit, which comes with IN-12's), I have been working on the pump mount that will seat a Laing D5 pump.

Originally this was going to be made from one piece of brass. This however turned out to be tricky --90mm OD brass pipe with 60mm ID turns out to be near impossible to get, and also prohibitively expensive. Not to mention it would add about 10 pounds to the weight of the case. Instead I decided on an aluminium collar with a small section of brass tube to hold the pump. So off to the base metal scrap merchant!

Below a fiver worth of material:



I already cleaned up the brass in this picture. When I got it, it was brown, stained and covered in sharpie marks, much like the aluminium. First job: sanding it and squaring the ends --because offcuts are never cut exactly square. This involved a lot of fiddling around on the clutch of the lathe with a micrometer. The result below:



A slight boring out of the aluminium allowed for a snug fit of the brass tube.

Next: profiling the collar:



And finishing it:



And after some slight sanding, the result:











It's all coming together nicely. I really need to buy that mill now...

 

Niiiiiiiice. Love your clean and simple work on individual parts and yet it's all building up to something awesomely intricate.

 

I love your work. Machined metal is the best!

 

Isn't it just? It's almost addictive.

But looking at your projects, I see you know all about that. You have same SIEG lathe that I have --and the same mill that I'm going to buy.

 

Yup, I recognized the bed right away . I am surprised at how capable these cheap Siegs can be, especially the mill. After giving them a good cleaning, lubing and fine-tuning the gibs they've both been great. I do recommend picking up some cheap magnetic DROs. $100 did all three axis on the mill and it was well worth it.

 

I'm thinking of hooking DROs to an Arduino with an LCD readout. There's a hack for the mill's RPM readout connector too, so I could combine the lot. There is also a website that has the Arduino communicate via Bluetooth to a cheap Android tablet that is used as a readout and calculation/control panel.

"Yo dawg, I heard you like modding, so I made mods for your modding tools so you can mod while you mod..."

 

Intriguing... There's an upgraded version of the mill (SX2) that has a port for a tach so I'm not surprised there's a way to hack it for the cheap one. But that sounds like a much nicer setup than my rushed hack job . And you joke about modding, but I've contemplated getting the belt drive and air strut kits. In fact, I just recently removed the torsion spring altogether and it seems work better

 

Oh Nexxo, absolutely genius! You've been busy. Have you seen the Taylor Edge nixie boards?

 

you do know you can turn your lathe into a small mill by adding a small Z-table like this:
http://buitelaar.nl/producten/geree...s-en-hoogtesupports/hbm-hoogtesupport-model-1
then you put a milling bit into the chuck and you have yourself a xyz system with a spindle

 

I hear good things about the belt drive and air strut kits. Many people remove the torsion spring as they can't get on with it.

Yup, but I wasn't sure how I could adapt them. I'm currently modifying an Ogi Lumen nixie kit to take IN14 tubes instead of IN12's. Below the PCB with the driver ICs...



And the top PCB with the IN12 nixes:



And powered up --but not showing digits yet as I haven't hooked up the Arduino.



Here's the £12,-- Arduino Nano that will drive it:



It's so tiny! It blows my mind how cheap and powerful these electronics have become.



This will be the setup to test the code for now. Because IN14 nixes have a completely different pinout, I'm having to redesign the top PCB in Eagle. Nearly done with that (adding decimal point driver channels was tricky. IN12's don't have any by default and the ICs don't drive them either-- these need to be steered directly from an Arduino pin via a transistor).

Thought about that, but it hasn't nearly got the range that I need. To be honest, the lathe (45kg) is too small for my liking, and so will be the mill (60kg). I am restricted by the weight that a wooden floor of a second floor loft room will support. If I had a decent ground floor workshop with cement or tile floor, I would have invested in the next models up which come in at 250kgs and 162kgs respectively. Maybe one day... when I've moved. I already need a bigger garden for my bee hives.

 

Lovely pump shroud. Have you thought about adding grooves that match the reservoir?
@Mach -Stop that. Electronics talk makes my brain/wallet itch.

 

Yes, but the cross-slide of my lathe does not have the reach for that. I'd need to access a big-ass workshop lathe for that.

EDIT: checked the handles for uniformity of LED brightness.



Looks OK. Next mount them.

 

Not sure if wiring or dog hair.

 

I have to say,This is Fantastic work,i have been looking in from time to time,cant wait to see it finished.
good luck and have fun.

 

It's looking great Nexxo, nice to see proper engineering

 

So this is Nexxo modding?

The Aluminium, the Lathe, the electronics. It's too much!!!

Seriously, i'm loving this more and more that you make progress. It's incredible engineering.

 

Ah, I love it when Nexxo does things!