About that… Early on I noticed there is an unused screw hole on the end-stop plate. It technically can have a screw installed that grants another level of adjustment, in which the head of the screw becomes the new end stop plate. Normally should not ever be needed. In my case, I needed it for a short time because an early version of my remix of the LR3 (Makita) dust shoe (mod’d to accommodate 2.5" hose) was too wide at first, and I needed to hit the end stop “sooner” to avoid collisions.
Back in full-on procrastination mode, with an entire shop area that needs sorting, so I cleared just enough space on a bench to sort out the 240v wiring.
Now that the printer is sorted it’s time to make some final bits.
A sensible person might not have got this far ahead of himself, but with pretty much all the bench space taken while I reshuffle things, this seemed like a nice little project to while away the evening after a day out.
I’m not sure if it’s a case of great minds thinking alike, or if I’m channelling you again @DougJoseph , but I discovered you’d made something similar to the magnetic sensor except no doubt you checked yours to check that they had a conductive coating - I did not! Lucky for me I have a steel slug which is exactly the same size and if it doesn’t work I’ll substitute one of the magnets for that. Basically these are just two magnets gripping a crimped terminal, so it’s easy to undo.
Similarly the coiled cable - it might be a dumb idea, I don’t know, but I do know that I have a huge dislike for dangling ropes and wires anywhere near spinning things, and an even greater dislike for them if they are near something that vibrates and likely to dislodge them.
Even so, I am feeling something akin to stupid, trying to solve problems that clearly don’t exist, from the point of view of someone whose not used a touch plate. Ahh well, it looks good in the photo!
I really, really like how you´re converting it to a production machine you “could have bought” into a shop.
wonderfull!
My sensor hangs on the router for now. I have seen on other forums that the casing → collet of the Makita conducts (?) power. My Katsu does not however.
If it would have been the case I would have wired one side of the sensor to the router clamp, and one wire to my Alu side plates. I could then add a wire with magnet so I would just need to clamp it to the side during a probe session and store it elsewhere afterwards. That would result in 0 wire dangling down.
Anyways, maybe an idea for you next iteration.
I have printed a couple of other versions of those and have been surprisingly unsatisfied with them.
Coiling cable is a fun thing to do. There are lots of 12 year old kids on YouTube with instructions.
I use a bit of 12mm aluminium tube to wrap the cable, secure it with a zip tie at each end and boil it for ten or fifteen minutes. Using an oven or heat gun which I think can get a bit too hot whereas keeping it on the boil keeps the temp at very close to 100°.
After that cool in water (I’m lazy so I pop the whole lot in the freezer and forget about it for a while). Once that’s done reversing the coil (hmmm - find a video on that one) “sets” the tension.
The coil in the pic above is the full length of cable that came with the touch plate - a metre?
And this folks, is why cleaning up the shed is going to take a while.
How hard can it be to whack a set of removable casters on a bench and clips to hold them on two others?
I opened the boxes this morning to get that little job out of the way and discovered that I’d bought a kit!
Then I realised the jack I need to lift two of the benches is in the van which is at a friend’s place half an hour’s drive away. Oh well, I think I’ll just go back to talking to my imaginary friends on the internet!
Well I’m way off track here, but some of what’s below just might help someone.
When you open a box of things that have to be screwed to something, always check the “easy install template” just in case it’s going to cause a bit of bother… in this case it actually bears no resemblance to the mounting brackets for the casters!
I’ve got twelve of these things to mount, in semi-accessible places, and if they aren’t spot-on the tables will be pigs to move. I’d normally print a quick jig to make life easy. A hole in a piece of cardboard just won’t hold my drill bit in the right place twelve times.
Since I also have to centre these holes on the legs, I’ve added a couple of pins and a notch to make marking centre easy. On my machine it’s a 30 minute print and these templates are a nice way of using up all the stray bits of filament too.
Oh - the red dots are where the “easy install template” suggests I should be drilling holes.
The only ones that worry me are the ones that aren’t in any voice I’ve heard before. The others are either misfiring memory cells, or my subconscious surfacing something in a coherent way. Of course, after half a century of devouring a mélange of eclectic and far-ranging media, there are a lot of different voices knocking around in there…
Why was this so difficult - the final farewell? I thought I could just hang 'em up somewhere as a memento, but I think I’d rather remember them when they were in their prime.
In the meantime - two down and one to go. These removable casters work a treat, I highly recommend them. Of course that’s the one with the lathe on it, and I’ve been putting off rebuilding that one for a decade. It looks as though progress on the machine might have stalled for a day or two.
Friday I just tossed the ones I had here. I keep on assembled for the museum box and it was still hard to toss the rest, it took me months to actually do it.
I’d like to say that I was back into it, but you blokes are keeping me thinking about other things, and I have had to have a few intervals while the glue dried as I assembled my entirely rebuilt lathe bench.
I can report that the car fits in the garage again, so there is evidence of progress. I’m not sure what I’d do if I didn’t have a two car garage!
And the spot for the LR3 is now longer and wider by just enough to fit a 1600 x1200 table which will give me a cut size of around 700 x1200 and proper space for the vac hose to run. It seems hilarious that those tubes came from the LR2 which fitted that table exactly.
And on another note but slightly related. I came across this image of one of my benches taken eight years ago. I’m posting it here as a reminder that though it was built with no less care than I’m presently putting into the LR3, it was never a piece of furniture, it’s a tool to be used, and like the LR3 no doubt will in due course, this bench cops a flogging daily.
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