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Overnight I changed my plans for today. I decided it was smarter to get the tup done so that I can experiment with a new machinist with a cnc vertical mill who claims he can get better parallelism. He's moved from across the 3rd world yard so I can't just time encounters to my convenience as I see him drive into the yard. We've done our talking so now I have to get him some steel. When he has the tup I can be doing other work. (The tup I put in the last 75 was spot on, but I fussed with it a lot and all those operations took a lotta time. Maybe the kid can do better and I can train him as a supplier.)
Today I processed the 6" od tube with 5/8 wall; squaring it and tapering one end for welding. Then did the lathe work on the solid round that fits into the tube, the wafer that bolts to the solid's bottom, and the wafer that bolts to the top of the solid to capture the connector ball. The solid and top wafer each have hemisphere's machined into them for the ball. Grant Sarver gave me the 2" ball end mill that I use for these hemispheres. Then I moved operations to the drill press. I clamp the tup solid round in the 3 jaw chuck of the vertical spindle indexer, clamp the indexer to a fence on the drill press table, and set the drill presss spindle to achieve the desired bolt circle. The solid receives 8 holes tapped for 1/2 13 tpi which are to hold on the bottom wafer, and 8 through holes on a 3" bolt circle for the bolts that capture the top wafer. These latter holes are counter bored so the bolt heads and lock washers are subsurface so that the bottom wafer doesn't contact them. I left the counter boring for tomorrow morning. My attention was beginning to wander and I wanted no foul ups.
My whole tup and cylinder assembly is complex, the pivots at each end of the cylinder, the octagon shape, the 16 bolts; hardly seems like "keep it super simple" applies.
Today I processed the 6" od tube with 5/8 wall; squaring it and tapering one end for welding. Then did the lathe work on the solid round that fits into the tube, the wafer that bolts to the solid's bottom, and the wafer that bolts to the top of the solid to capture the connector ball. The solid and top wafer each have hemisphere's machined into them for the ball. Grant Sarver gave me the 2" ball end mill that I use for these hemispheres. Then I moved operations to the drill press. I clamp the tup solid round in the 3 jaw chuck of the vertical spindle indexer, clamp the indexer to a fence on the drill press table, and set the drill presss spindle to achieve the desired bolt circle. The solid receives 8 holes tapped for 1/2 13 tpi which are to hold on the bottom wafer, and 8 through holes on a 3" bolt circle for the bolts that capture the top wafer. These latter holes are counter bored so the bolt heads and lock washers are subsurface so that the bottom wafer doesn't contact them. I left the counter boring for tomorrow morning. My attention was beginning to wander and I wanted no foul ups.
My whole tup and cylinder assembly is complex, the pivots at each end of the cylinder, the octagon shape, the 16 bolts; hardly seems like "keep it super simple" applies.
