Pertneer's Blog

In my previous post  I stated that i was going to try to rebuild this instead of buying a new one. After tearing it apart and trying to remove the sleeve I noticed that it was cast in place. By this I mean the steel sleeve had the aluminum housing cast around it. There was no way to press out the old sleeve with out destroying the casting itself. So I looked to see if I could find a larger piston with no luck. I then waited for a comparable compressor to go on sale. This past week this finally happened. So instead of rebuilding my compressor I am replacing it with a new one.

I am however not simply replace the entire thing. What I am doing is somewhat of an upgrade. I removed all items from the top of the old tank and plugged all unnecessary holes so I can keep the tank plumbed in to add more volume of air to the system.

Stay tuned for pictures of the plumbing of the two tanks together and the final conclusion.

A couple of years ago I made the rooky mistake of letting my air compressor get low on oil. I know you should check that before you run it for extended periods of time. Turns out this was not the only issue. Seams the oil splasher on the bottom of the rod was broke and it starved that cylinder for oil. I did a quick ball hone job, some new rings, a new rod(with a new oil splasher on it) and slapped it back together. (more…)

Since I have completed this project and not updated the outcome I figured an update was in order.

Since I finished this I have used it quite a bit, but it has a few flaws.

• it proved to be very hard to get the lines to meet exactly where they needed to be, I should have designed in a was to adjust them
• The laser of choice did not last as long as I had hoped. Although they worked great for the first couple of days, they have since become very dim. Almost to the point of not being able to see them any more.
• needed to incorporate a better way to plug them in. I only used a drop cord for the first few days as a power source and never finished the wiring (well they were to dim to use anyway)

What i would change (read on)

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Been a while since I did a write up for this blog. I guess it is overdue.

A couple of weeks ago I was trying to line up a sheet on the Plasma table and struggling to locate a part within a piece of material very close to the same size as I was planning to cut. I told myself, “Self you need to make something to help with this little issue”. I only talk to myself on very rare occasions. Stop being so judgmental.

I decided to take a trip to the hardware store to see what I could use to make a device to locate my sheet. First thought was a device that went off of the edge of the table but seams too simple. So then I though about using a laser to help locate the sheet. Sounded like a nice little project. So I went in search of some sort of laser line generator. Off to the laser level isle. I found a cheap little level that had a laser line that could be rotated for around 15 bucks. Was hoping for something a little cheaper because I would need two of these.

I started off with just purchasing one (tight budgets suck) to make sure it would work as I expected.

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After a struggle with getting some electrical bugs worked out with my Jeep I think I finally have it ready for the year of wheeling. Thinking i had a short somewhere that was draining the battery I spent a lot of time tracing wires to not find any issues. Come to find out the battery had a major issue.

Then I had the task of replacing my spare that had a slight major hole in the sidewall. Only to find out that the price of tires have been jumping faster than the fuel prices. Sheesh will it ever end. I put the father-in-law up to the task of locating a suitable replacement at the Jefferson, Wis spring swap meet. He found me one with a little less than half tread for a mind boggling $5. Yes only $5! What a find.

Just waiting for June and the fathers day run at the cliffs.

I needed some tools to make some calculation for certain areas of the build of my plasma table. I have decided that these tools may be of use to others also as they begin their journey building a CNC Plasma.

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I have been running the machine through its paces the last few days. Today I testing the positioning accuracy of it today. I wrote a program to have the machine rapid out 84 inches then rapid back to with in 1 inch of zero then feed into zero. I did this 20 times and the machine stopped at zero plus or minus .0003 every time.

Enjoy the video.

I had a co-worker wanted me to make him a custom exhaust for his racing mower. He brought me the pipe and a flange. I bent the tube to avoid the steering and the foot rest with it exiting the side of the mower Nascar style. Here is what I come up with:

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Since I recently got this machine actually moving I have been putting it through some tests. The other day I create a G-code program to move the table throughout its travel in various directions to make sure it worked as expected and returned to its previous position.

Since the table is driven by stepper motors instead of servos loosing steps is always a concern. This is generally contributed with pushing the machine to fast resulting is the stepper motors loosing there count. Not sure why, but is does happen.

After tuning the motors in Mach 3 to suitable settings I proceeded with the testing. I started with the table at around a travel speed of 600 in/min but was not happy with the sound the table was making. It sounded like it was struggling to make the moves this fast. So I slowed it down to 450 in/min. Still a respectable speed for a rapid move. This sounded a lot better and leaves some room for improvement.

This video shows the path I programmed in and the speed in which it travels.

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As the title states I am testing the movement before I start using he torch(saves money until I make sure it is working properly.

It is kind of boring to watch, but in a later test it made a perfect circle very close to the diameter I programmed it to do. Not to bed for the first trial after setting it up.