Well, things are moving along nicely. I had a real breakthrough that will vastly improve the quality of the product, but more on that later. I got a great deal (free) on some ultra high quality solid carbide lathe cutters. Infortunatrly the holders for these are expensive and rare in 1/2" shank, which is the largest my machine will handle. So I decided to make my own holders.
Now the first thing I did with my fancy new cutters was tear into a piece of hard tool steel. I needed a slitting saw, and just so happened to have a bunch of the blades laying around. So I turned a chunk of 1" steel down to 5/8" with a flanged end, drilled and tapped, then BOOM! Slitting saw.
I finished off some details on the knuckle joint, using a machined slug to ensure it was in the proper spot when the epoxy cured.
With these pieces glued in place, I can drill and tap for 1/16" cap screws set with lock-tite. The heads of the screws will then be milled flat and be virtually invisible. I just wouldn't trust any kind of glue to hold such critical parts together.
Next up, we have some finger tips. This is a tricky one since they are tuned on the lathe, which is pretty straightforward, then the round profile has to be cut, then then crescent shape cut with a standard end mill, then the inside curve needs to be done with a 1/8" ball-nose end mill.
And AH, now the good stuff. These will be kits, and are offered in the JY (though I probably shouldn't say more than that in this thread). Anyway, with the first couple of deposits I was able to get a vibratory polisher, likek they type used to clean bullet casings and clean parts. I did a bit of research and found that rounded ceramic media do what I needed it to do, though I consider it lucky that everything went as planned.
I threw in a couple of scrap parts for a few hours and WOW! All tool marks were removed and I was reminded of the flawless finished found on pistols and rifles. I assumed the ceramic had simple abraded the blemishes off, but the calipers showed no change at all, though the readings were now more consistent. Im guessing what happens is the media impacts the surface thousands of times like tiny hammers, massaging imperfections back to a flat surface. Keep in mind that these were
scrap pieces I pulled from the junk bin,
I was also able to get a jewelers torch so I can do any brazing that may be required. Some of the pistons look like they've been brazed, but some experimentation is in order.
Below is the 1/4" plate that will serve as the base of the palm.
We'll climb that mountian when we get there. Adn here's the obigatory shot of how it look all put together so far (notice no fingertips as those are being done today).
