The man I bought most of my tools from 30 some yrs ago when I was an apprentice tool and die maker was WAY into model building.
He built 1/8-scale 427 FE Ford motors for Ford execs.
He CAST his own blocks cranks and heads in his home FOUNDERY!
he also scaled his own tap and dies! so say if he wanted to tap a 1/4 scale 1" hole, he wouldn’t use a 1/4-20 tap. He used his 1/4-32 tap he custom ground.
Those running 427's were amazing, but they absolutely paled to his 1/16 sized railway system that circled his yard and even had crossing gates across his drive way. so very weird to see a 4-4-0 engine, coal car 4 passenger cars and caboose pull up to the side of his shop to get water.
He had taught steam engineering at the University of Toledo for 50 yrs before he died.
What was amazing is there was absolutely nothing digital, not even an indicator or calipers anywhere.
All was made with math and hand cranks.
Not me!
Today I finally pulled the trigger and bought some tooling for my shop.
I just purchased a CNC mill and router.
It is a conversion from a newer CMM. Its base and gantry are made of 6" thick granite, has 18" of X travel and 24" of Y and just under 8" of Z.
It is all ball screw and I am unsure of the motor types. The resolution is PHENOMENAL! .00001"
The Z plate contains a self contained mill head from a shop smith, a little underpowered, but I was using a 3/8" 2 flute end mill and removing .100 deep passes at .250 wide through CRS and it didn't bog down and left a VERY nice finish. Beside that is a porter cable trim router.
After I finish here, I'm ordering a 14" band saw capable of 12" re-saws, 9" oscillating spindle sander, 2hp dust collector, Air filtration unit, 24" box pan brake and what ever else I can get with the money I budgeted from Grizzly.
The guy who did the conversion lives about an hours drive north of me and as part of the deal, he'll teach me his bobcad and bobart programs and we'll build a 4th axis lathe out of some of his "junk"
We’ve designed a table that will allow me to reposition it on the carriage to let me machine up to 36" on the Y. That cost me a 4' x4' x .750 sheet of Kaiser Alum. Now I only have 5 left, 4 that is, after I machine the new table out of one.
Topic: Making miniature V8 Engines for fun (Read 9253 times)