Rassilon
Well-Known Member
Yeah that's so true, and it's good to see another machinist showing of his workmanship, keep the photo's and build posts coming. :thumbsup
Re-imagining the 11th Dr. Sonic screwdriver..
- Thread starter tailgunner30uk
- Start date
Yeah that's so true, and it's good to see another machinist showing of his workmanship, keep the photo's and build posts coming. :thumbsup
greatwazoo42
Master Member
Hmmm. not a lot of feedback on the sonic screwdriver changes, perhaps everyone has been sucked into the MFX sonic ridge detailing debate
Newp. I've been avoiding that thread like the plague after reading some of it. I prefer to enjoy this hobby instead of nit pick and argue about it. :lol
Now this thread, I like, you did a fantastic job going from concept to creation. Your sonic looks stunning! Love it!
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
I would have posted an update on Sunday, but we have been having some problems with the internet for the last couple of weeks. It probably had something to do with my wife, trying to dig through the cable..
I took some pictures, but it is hard to make 4 pieces of transparent plastic look interesting, the 4 support arms are now roughly machined and I have returned to the aluminium support column to complete the main machining.
I will definitely order the materials for the handle this week and start the design work for the pommel.
So see you soon.
I took some pictures, but it is hard to make 4 pieces of transparent plastic look interesting, the 4 support arms are now roughly machined and I have returned to the aluminium support column to complete the main machining.
I will definitely order the materials for the handle this week and start the design work for the pommel.
So see you soon.
Rassilon
Well-Known Member
How true that is greatwazoo42, I so do like new designs and reading and seeing photo’s as they come together of there sonic creation.
Custom sonic builds are very interesting, you get to see the workmanship and the creators designs come to life. And this design, and workmanship, as I can see, is outstanding. :thumbsup
sonicprops
Active Member
that looks AMAZING truly beautiful work i am a big fan cant wait to see the finished product .
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tailgunner30uk
Active Member
You did what?!! Why?...
First off, I would like to thank all who have commented, they are always appreciated.
And now for something completely different...
Not really, thread-jacking my own thread, I don't think so. :behave
Last week was both productive and unproductive in so many ways. I intended to finish off the machining of the support column and drill and tap the holes for the extending mechanism. That would pave the way to start work on the extending mechanism itself.
So I set forth with the single-mindedness of a possessed person, well actually lend-leased, I couldn't afford to purchase my obsessiveness outright :rolleyes
Having restored my mill to all of it's 4 axis glory, I mounted the top-cap ( the part that sits between the handle and the extending part of the sonic) onto a piece of aluminium turned to size and milled the slots for the transparent arms. All went smoothly, too smoothly, I was to find out.
I already knew I had some problems with the support column, due to the way it had been held when machining the slots, and these were now to raise their ugly little heads. A consequence of not having the A-Axis working was that the support arm was held in a vice when machining the slots. As more of the slots were cut less material was available to hold in the vice. Also as the part was rotated for each slot this meant that there was some inaccuracy in the position of each slot. Test fitting of the support arms showed up binding ea they slid up the slots in the support column. This has resulted in some re-machining of the slots around the column to try and straighten out the problems. I am however somewhat disappointed with the results and am contemplating making another column, to get it right. The thought of writing off 40 or so hours however doesn't fill me with cheery thoughts. :wacko
On a lighter note I have started designing the pommel. It will be somewhat chunkier than the genuine screwdrivers as it has to contain something 'Veeryy interesteeng.' (I don't think that came out like it sounded in my head.. That reminds me I must stop using my hands-free when walking, by now I think half of Birmingham thinks I am completely insane.) Also I have now ordered the plastic from which I am going to machine the handles for the screwdriver. One arrived today, the other hopefully in the next few days. Finally something easy!
More arguably, faintly amusing musings from the Galactic Hitch-hiker.
I was standing on a low hill, watching two suns boiling away into nothing, over the horizon of a distant planet, Magrathea, I think it was called. When out of the blue a whale introduced itself to the ground at terminal velocity...
Here are some pics for your perusal.
The second one is my workshop, unusually tidy for me!
First off, I would like to thank all who have commented, they are always appreciated.
And now for something completely different...
Not really, thread-jacking my own thread, I don't think so. :behave
Last week was both productive and unproductive in so many ways. I intended to finish off the machining of the support column and drill and tap the holes for the extending mechanism. That would pave the way to start work on the extending mechanism itself.
So I set forth with the single-mindedness of a possessed person, well actually lend-leased, I couldn't afford to purchase my obsessiveness outright :rolleyes
Having restored my mill to all of it's 4 axis glory, I mounted the top-cap ( the part that sits between the handle and the extending part of the sonic) onto a piece of aluminium turned to size and milled the slots for the transparent arms. All went smoothly, too smoothly, I was to find out.
I already knew I had some problems with the support column, due to the way it had been held when machining the slots, and these were now to raise their ugly little heads. A consequence of not having the A-Axis working was that the support arm was held in a vice when machining the slots. As more of the slots were cut less material was available to hold in the vice. Also as the part was rotated for each slot this meant that there was some inaccuracy in the position of each slot. Test fitting of the support arms showed up binding ea they slid up the slots in the support column. This has resulted in some re-machining of the slots around the column to try and straighten out the problems. I am however somewhat disappointed with the results and am contemplating making another column, to get it right. The thought of writing off 40 or so hours however doesn't fill me with cheery thoughts. :wacko
On a lighter note I have started designing the pommel. It will be somewhat chunkier than the genuine screwdrivers as it has to contain something 'Veeryy interesteeng.' (I don't think that came out like it sounded in my head.. That reminds me I must stop using my hands-free when walking, by now I think half of Birmingham thinks I am completely insane.) Also I have now ordered the plastic from which I am going to machine the handles for the screwdriver. One arrived today, the other hopefully in the next few days. Finally something easy!
More arguably, faintly amusing musings from the Galactic Hitch-hiker.
I was standing on a low hill, watching two suns boiling away into nothing, over the horizon of a distant planet, Magrathea, I think it was called. When out of the blue a whale introduced itself to the ground at terminal velocity...
Here are some pics for your perusal.
The second one is my workshop, unusually tidy for me!
Rassilon
Well-Known Member
Oh I know what you mean about the last part of the job going wrong, was not that long ago I lost 20 hr's and had to start from the beginning due to me not setting the Y axis to 0,0 when I changed the tooling, when I should have.
And drove the tool into to job, yep that just cost me 20 hr’s and a $60 tool tip, once I stoped throwing stuff around the workshop, I cleaned up my mess and then replaced the tool, and then started from scratch.
Perseverance, one thing you must have plenty of, is perseverance. Oh I like the action shots of the machining process, I have the same indexing head, been looking for a chuck for that dam thing for ages. have set mine up the same way, your work will pay off at the end with an exceptional work of art.
And drove the tool into to job, yep that just cost me 20 hr’s and a $60 tool tip, once I stoped throwing stuff around the workshop, I cleaned up my mess and then replaced the tool, and then started from scratch.
Perseverance, one thing you must have plenty of, is perseverance. Oh I like the action shots of the machining process, I have the same indexing head, been looking for a chuck for that dam thing for ages. have set mine up the same way, your work will pay off at the end with an exceptional work of art.
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tailgunner30uk
Active Member
Hi Rassilon, The rotary table has caused me a ton of headaches. Most come with 4 slots, and as far as I have found all chucks that mount to to tables are the same. The solution came with the purchase of a Taig/Peatol lathe, this had a small chuck. I then purchased an MT2 taper with 3/4 16 thread adaptor the same as the Sherline. This fits into the table and the lathe chuck screws on. I am now looking for a 4 jaw chuck for it.
I have lost count of how many times I have moved the milling head in the wrong direction, and buried a tool into a piece of work or seen the piece move while milling, but it is life and afterwards it is too late to do anything, so I move on. Not that there isn't a lot of shouting, not a lot of tool throwing, small space lots of expensive stuff!
More updates soon.
I have lost count of how many times I have moved the milling head in the wrong direction, and buried a tool into a piece of work or seen the piece move while milling, but it is life and afterwards it is too late to do anything, so I move on. Not that there isn't a lot of shouting, not a lot of tool throwing, small space lots of expensive stuff!
More updates soon.
sonicprops
Active Member
i cant wait for updates this build looks amazing cant wait to see it finished
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
Work, network cards and other stuff.
Hi everybody,
I thought I would do a short update as there hasn't been much going on.
I haven't achieved much in the last couple of weeks. The white part of the handle is partly done, all that is needed are the flutes to be machined. A little bit of work has been done on the parts of the support column, I still need to re-machine the support arms to the correct thickness. I am still in two minds as to whether to have the support column fixed or moving!
Congratulations to the winner of the sonic competition, I will have to make my design myself now
Work has been a pain in the A*** for the last couple of weeks, damn, it is always getting in the way. Needed to get that out of the system.
I thought I would upgrade the PC that controls the CNC mill, So hunting through a pile of electronic junk I found an old wireless network card with no drivers. Ah Ha I thought, stick it in ye olde computer and instant network. No more USB drives transferring files, simply drop them on the network drive and pick the needed ones up in the workshop. Did I mention the no drivers bit! The PC is a HP slimline desktop, so first problem, the card doesn't fit with the backplate attached. No problem remove the backplate install said card in a PCI slot. Power up PC, download drivers on the laptop and transfer them using a thumb drive. After trying a myriad of drivers it was time for plan B. Run a network cable from the router to the workshop PC and off we go. The longest network cable I had was a couple of meters too short:facepalm
so the pc ended up perched precariously with it's top removed and the router equally precariously perched on a box at the fullest extent of it's cable, thankfully this worked although, finding the router upside down on the floor and the network drive off was disconcerting. Power and order restored, obligatory anti-virus software installed and Internet Explorer relegated to emergency use only, the CNC PC is now on the network.
More work, more pictures and more insanity to follow.
Hi everybody,
I thought I would do a short update as there hasn't been much going on.
I haven't achieved much in the last couple of weeks. The white part of the handle is partly done, all that is needed are the flutes to be machined. A little bit of work has been done on the parts of the support column, I still need to re-machine the support arms to the correct thickness. I am still in two minds as to whether to have the support column fixed or moving!
Congratulations to the winner of the sonic competition, I will have to make my design myself now
Work has been a pain in the A*** for the last couple of weeks, damn, it is always getting in the way. Needed to get that out of the system.
I thought I would upgrade the PC that controls the CNC mill, So hunting through a pile of electronic junk I found an old wireless network card with no drivers. Ah Ha I thought, stick it in ye olde computer and instant network. No more USB drives transferring files, simply drop them on the network drive and pick the needed ones up in the workshop. Did I mention the no drivers bit! The PC is a HP slimline desktop, so first problem, the card doesn't fit with the backplate attached. No problem remove the backplate install said card in a PCI slot. Power up PC, download drivers on the laptop and transfer them using a thumb drive. After trying a myriad of drivers it was time for plan B. Run a network cable from the router to the workshop PC and off we go. The longest network cable I had was a couple of meters too short:facepalm
so the pc ended up perched precariously with it's top removed and the router equally precariously perched on a box at the fullest extent of it's cable, thankfully this worked although, finding the router upside down on the floor and the network drive off was disconcerting. Power and order restored, obligatory anti-virus software installed and Internet Explorer relegated to emergency use only, the CNC PC is now on the network.
More work, more pictures and more insanity to follow.
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
Another in an ongoing, if intermittent, stream.
Of updates.
Honestly, you'd think I would have learnt by now!
I have started work on the extending mechanism for the sonic, and have completed the white part of the handle.
The process of making the handle was fairly straight forward. Turn down the plastic to the correct diameter, bore out the centre to match the brass inner sleeve. Then taper-turn the handle to it's final dimensions. When all this was done the handle was installed in the mill and the flutes cut. This went quite smoothly, the only problem being that the jaws of the chuck would only just, after some work, hold the piece. It is however done, and will not need to be redone
Off to work on the extending mechanism. I used to think I was insane, but now I have come to realise that everyone I know thinks I am to :rolleyes
I have no idea whether the mechanism will work as designed, or even if I can get all of the parts to line up at the same time. There are a set of small gears that need to be made and a plate to hold everything in place.
The extending column was dealt with first. 4 holes were drilled in the ring close to the base. Two of these holes were tapped to take threaded rods, the other two bored for rods to pass through to act as guides hence the addition of a support to the column you can see in the pictures at the end. Next the top cap for the handle was drilled with matching holes for the guide rods, blind, and the threaded rods, through. The top hat was then inverted and pockets cut for the driving gears. I also drilled and tapped the top hat for the retaining screws, six of them. I wanted to be sure that it wouldn't fall off! Originally there were going to be eight...
The upper body, the part which has the waisted black grip, has had matching holes drilled, but I will have to machine some flats as the screw-heads bind on the body. This was anticipated, sort of:facepalm.
I can cut the flats, when I mill the recesses for the switches. So far everything seems to be lining up, a few bits were a little skew-whiff but within the tolerances that I needed. So onward to the gears.
Now I have to issue a word of warning, in the next few episodes, that form the ongoing saga that is this sonic build there might be some deleted expletives. I, on the whole, do not like cutting gears. Especially very small gears. There isn't a lot of room for error, and the one thing I really excel at is error. If there is something that can be forgotten, overlooked or reversed, then I'm your man. I put this moment off for weeks, but no longer. So first I needed an arbour for the gear cutters, made, I wont bore you all with the process, I am certain you are all falling asleep already. An arbour for the brass for the gears, also made. All the hardware was assembled on the mill and away we go. First up. two 20 tooth gears, the largest in the train. After creating the code for the gear, I ran it. Hmmm, why is the cutter heading steadily toward the chuck further than I had planned? As I contemplated this, a more urgent thought elbowed it's way past the first. It came in two parts, is it going to stop before the cutter meets the chuck, then, as I did not know the answer to the first, shouldn't I DO something about it. I sprang into action with all the alacrity of a sloth on sedatives. Stopping the mill. A review and rewrite of the code and the first gear emerged unscathed.. Only seven more to go:eek
I think I will wrap things up there for now. Pics will now be served for your entertainment.
But first, and I know you have all been waiting breathlessly for the next instalment.
Further ramblings of a galactic hitch-hiker:
So, anyway, I was outside the Restaurant at the end of the Universe a few days ago, they were having terrible problems, as they were being picketed by the Amalgamated Union of Sentient Vegetables.
Of updates.
Honestly, you'd think I would have learnt by now!
I have started work on the extending mechanism for the sonic, and have completed the white part of the handle.
The process of making the handle was fairly straight forward. Turn down the plastic to the correct diameter, bore out the centre to match the brass inner sleeve. Then taper-turn the handle to it's final dimensions. When all this was done the handle was installed in the mill and the flutes cut. This went quite smoothly, the only problem being that the jaws of the chuck would only just, after some work, hold the piece. It is however done, and will not need to be redone
Off to work on the extending mechanism. I used to think I was insane, but now I have come to realise that everyone I know thinks I am to :rolleyes
I have no idea whether the mechanism will work as designed, or even if I can get all of the parts to line up at the same time. There are a set of small gears that need to be made and a plate to hold everything in place.
The extending column was dealt with first. 4 holes were drilled in the ring close to the base. Two of these holes were tapped to take threaded rods, the other two bored for rods to pass through to act as guides hence the addition of a support to the column you can see in the pictures at the end. Next the top cap for the handle was drilled with matching holes for the guide rods, blind, and the threaded rods, through. The top hat was then inverted and pockets cut for the driving gears. I also drilled and tapped the top hat for the retaining screws, six of them. I wanted to be sure that it wouldn't fall off! Originally there were going to be eight...
The upper body, the part which has the waisted black grip, has had matching holes drilled, but I will have to machine some flats as the screw-heads bind on the body. This was anticipated, sort of:facepalm.
I can cut the flats, when I mill the recesses for the switches. So far everything seems to be lining up, a few bits were a little skew-whiff but within the tolerances that I needed. So onward to the gears.
Now I have to issue a word of warning, in the next few episodes, that form the ongoing saga that is this sonic build there might be some deleted expletives. I, on the whole, do not like cutting gears. Especially very small gears. There isn't a lot of room for error, and the one thing I really excel at is error. If there is something that can be forgotten, overlooked or reversed, then I'm your man. I put this moment off for weeks, but no longer. So first I needed an arbour for the gear cutters, made, I wont bore you all with the process, I am certain you are all falling asleep already. An arbour for the brass for the gears, also made. All the hardware was assembled on the mill and away we go. First up. two 20 tooth gears, the largest in the train. After creating the code for the gear, I ran it. Hmmm, why is the cutter heading steadily toward the chuck further than I had planned? As I contemplated this, a more urgent thought elbowed it's way past the first. It came in two parts, is it going to stop before the cutter meets the chuck, then, as I did not know the answer to the first, shouldn't I DO something about it. I sprang into action with all the alacrity of a sloth on sedatives. Stopping the mill. A review and rewrite of the code and the first gear emerged unscathed.. Only seven more to go:eek
I think I will wrap things up there for now. Pics will now be served for your entertainment.
But first, and I know you have all been waiting breathlessly for the next instalment.
Further ramblings of a galactic hitch-hiker:
So, anyway, I was outside the Restaurant at the end of the Universe a few days ago, they were having terrible problems, as they were being picketed by the Amalgamated Union of Sentient Vegetables.
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
A short update and link to a boring video.
The last few days have been fun, cutting out blanks, and then destroying them in futile attempts to make the small gears for the extending mechanism in the sonic screwdriver.
Well, you didn't think I was going to use springs, if there was a far more difficult and ridiculously complicated choice did you?
I now have a collection of gears of various sizes made. I need to make a couple more as well as the driving pinion. Then I can make the plates that retain the gears. In all honesty, things went reasonably well, and I have learnt a few things along the way. The biggest problem has been keeping the gears square whilst cutting the teeth.
I thought I would share just a small taste of the repetitive nature of making gears, therefore for your enjoyment a three minute video of teeth being formed on my CNC mill. The gear in the video has 23 teeth and is 7.5mm in diameter, using a module 0.3 cutter.
Gear cutting on a CNC Mill - YouTube
Enjoy!
The last few days have been fun, cutting out blanks, and then destroying them in futile attempts to make the small gears for the extending mechanism in the sonic screwdriver.
Well, you didn't think I was going to use springs, if there was a far more difficult and ridiculously complicated choice did you?
I now have a collection of gears of various sizes made. I need to make a couple more as well as the driving pinion. Then I can make the plates that retain the gears. In all honesty, things went reasonably well, and I have learnt a few things along the way. The biggest problem has been keeping the gears square whilst cutting the teeth.
I thought I would share just a small taste of the repetitive nature of making gears, therefore for your enjoyment a three minute video of teeth being formed on my CNC mill. The gear in the video has 23 teeth and is 7.5mm in diameter, using a module 0.3 cutter.
Gear cutting on a CNC Mill - YouTube
Enjoy!
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
Gears, gears, gears...
hi all,
Another month has gone by, and a little more progress made on the screwdriver. I am now well into the process of making the extending mechanism, and am currently working on the gearbox. The two plates that make up the top and bottom of the gearbox have been made and the pillars that separate the two plates are also done. Pre-assembly indicates that the holes line up for the pivots so at present things are looking promising. There are still a few things to do. I need to make one more gear at least. A pinion gear for the motor that drives the assembly, and I may make four more to replace some that I have already made, due to some revisions in the design.
With a little luck I might be able to do some initial tests of the mechanism by the end of the month. There are still a few things that need to be made in this part of the build.
A top ring has to be made to retain the drive shafts and support guides. The drive shafts and supports need to be cut to length and machined and an LED housing to fit at the base of the inner tube has to be fabricated from Delrin. From there I can move on to making the switch housing and buttons, and make the black part of the handle.
I am still considering options on what to do about the milling errors on the support tube, part of me wants to remake the whole thing, but another part wants to try and resolve the problem by milling some replacement parts, milling away the defects and installing the replacements. I'll have to think about it:confused
Anyway some pictures for you. not exciting but they demonstrate the process of making the gearbox plates and where the assembly lives. A whole lot of work that will end up never being seen. :unsure
But first more tales of a Galactic Hitchiker.
I was visiting some friends who worked at Megadodo Publications, on Ursa Minor Beta when a Fleet of spaceships from Frogstar appeared and Abducted the whole building. Someone said Zaphod Beeblebrox was inside, I doubt it, even He's not that cool!
The Pics.
hi all,
Another month has gone by, and a little more progress made on the screwdriver. I am now well into the process of making the extending mechanism, and am currently working on the gearbox. The two plates that make up the top and bottom of the gearbox have been made and the pillars that separate the two plates are also done. Pre-assembly indicates that the holes line up for the pivots so at present things are looking promising. There are still a few things to do. I need to make one more gear at least. A pinion gear for the motor that drives the assembly, and I may make four more to replace some that I have already made, due to some revisions in the design.
With a little luck I might be able to do some initial tests of the mechanism by the end of the month. There are still a few things that need to be made in this part of the build.
A top ring has to be made to retain the drive shafts and support guides. The drive shafts and supports need to be cut to length and machined and an LED housing to fit at the base of the inner tube has to be fabricated from Delrin. From there I can move on to making the switch housing and buttons, and make the black part of the handle.
I am still considering options on what to do about the milling errors on the support tube, part of me wants to remake the whole thing, but another part wants to try and resolve the problem by milling some replacement parts, milling away the defects and installing the replacements. I'll have to think about it:confused
Anyway some pictures for you. not exciting but they demonstrate the process of making the gearbox plates and where the assembly lives. A whole lot of work that will end up never being seen. :unsure
But first more tales of a Galactic Hitchiker.
I was visiting some friends who worked at Megadodo Publications, on Ursa Minor Beta when a Fleet of spaceships from Frogstar appeared and Abducted the whole building. Someone said Zaphod Beeblebrox was inside, I doubt it, even He's not that cool!
The Pics.
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tailgunner30uk
Active Member
Thank you for your comments, they are always welcome. As more and more of the parts reach completion I can start to see the light at the end of this particular tunnel. There are however still some critical parts to be made, including the pommel, likely to be one of the hardest parts I have ever attempted. But I do not want to spoil the suprise, the laughter if it all goes pear-shaped will be awesome.:lol
If you have any suggestions, criticisms, jokes feel free to chime in.
If you have any suggestions, criticisms, jokes feel free to chime in.
Rassilon
Well-Known Member
Very impressive CNC work on the small parts tailgunner30uk I’m currently converting a Sieg mill to a CNC to do such small parts, as the current CNC’s that we use are just dam to big for hobby building.
You may have mentioned this and I must have misted it, but what do you doing for a living?
You may have mentioned this and I must have misted it, but what do you doing for a living?
tailgunner30uk
Active Member
For a living I repair printers, PCs and laptops, both warranty and non-warranty, various makes and models.
My mill started life as a manual Peatol/Taig, over time it has had a variety of upgrades. New z-axis, changed from single phase to three phase motor, then over to a high speed spindle. The Y-axis has been extended, the 4th axis is a converted vertex rotary table. It has an air-blower chip clearing system, that can provide mist cooling/lubrication when needed.
Future upgrades may include ball-screws for the x and y axes, a fifth axis modification, and longer y-axis ways.
Here are a couple of pics of earlier stuff.
An RC model ship, and a self-designed steam engine with a digitally controlled rotary valve.
A little off topic I know.
My mill started life as a manual Peatol/Taig, over time it has had a variety of upgrades. New z-axis, changed from single phase to three phase motor, then over to a high speed spindle. The Y-axis has been extended, the 4th axis is a converted vertex rotary table. It has an air-blower chip clearing system, that can provide mist cooling/lubrication when needed.
Future upgrades may include ball-screws for the x and y axes, a fifth axis modification, and longer y-axis ways.
Here are a couple of pics of earlier stuff.
An RC model ship, and a self-designed steam engine with a digitally controlled rotary valve.
A little off topic I know.
