October 2009 - Home Metal Shop Club

1 October 2009 NewsletterVolume 14- Number 10 its founding by John Korman in 1996, The Home Metal Shop Club has brought together metalworkers from all over the Southeast Texas members interests include Model Engineering, Casting, Blacksmithing, Gunsmithing, Sheet MetalFabrication, Robotics, CNC, Welding, Metal Art, and always like to talk about theircraft and range from full machine shops to thoselimited to a bench vise and you like to make things, run Metal working machines, or just talk about tools, this is your generally consist of a presentation with Q&A, followed byshow and tellwhere the memberscan share their work and BurnsVice PresidentJohn HoffTreasurerEmmett CarstensSecretaryDick KostelnicekLibrarianDan HarperWebmasterDick KostelnicekPhotographerJan RowlandCNC SIGD ennis CranstonCasting SIGTom MooreNovice SIGRich PichlerAbout the Upcoming November 14 MeetingsWe re meeting at the Freed-Montrose library in Houston at 1.

2 00 A business meeting willconvene at the snack shop next to the Freed-Montrose Library entranceat 11 JanRowland will talk onBall and ACME screws in CNC and Machines that I Cobbled for details about upcoming of the October 10 Regular MeetingOctober 2009 - Home Metal Shop Club Newsletter- members attended the 1:00 meeting at the Looscan library. President VanceBurns presided. Guests included Dave Rutledge, Pete Bull, Nick Reyner, and Bill Peck (ablacksmith). A request was made for members to submit their Metal working capabilities andwillingness to help others (fee or gratis) to be put on a new club web page, All interestedmembers should contact the Swann and AdamHampton talked aboutthe economic feasibilityof running Bill s electriccar from a primarysource of a trackingphoto-voltaic array inHouston analysis includedall investment coststhrough the savings bynot using gasoline.

3 Theydetermined that a 30-mile per day range could be supported by charging batteries at night fromthe power grid and reverse powering the grid from their photo-voltaic array during the Hampton demonstrated his open-loop tracking motor and electronics driving the & TellJoe Williams described a Glass Blowing Lathe (see article below) and showed his watch closingjig consisting of two hollowed-out aluminum cups that are used with a C-clamp to press shut awatch Kostelnicek demonstrated how to cut 1/8-inch diametercopper tubing by scoring it with a pocketknife and breaking it withthe help a short length of overriding stiff tubing (right).

4 Dan Harper showed his extractor for broken taps (below).Mike Winkler brought his homemade lathe center rest that usesball bearing work supports (right). October 2009 - Home Metal Shop Club Newsletter- Gladkowskishowed some very small injection molded modelparts that he cast (below). He used molten ZA12 Metal forcedinto a steel mold with the aid of steam generated from a wetblanket cover plate placed over the molten Metal SluggerByVance BurnsLouisville Kentucky is the home of the Hillerich & Bradsby Company, better known as themanufacturers of the Louisville Slugger.

5 This is slugger city; as you walk down the streetsthere are cast bronze baseball bats set into the sidewalk, tipped against anearby building, each one a scale model of a unique bat design with a bronzehome plate describing the bat's history. Quite reaching the plant, the first thing you notice is a seven-story bat, tippedagainst the building. The scaled replica is something in it's own right;constructed of A36 steel, it stands 120 feet high, 9 feet wide at the base andweighs 68,000 pounds. If it were full of Louisville pride, itwould hold 30, 'm not much of a ball fan, but I can attest there is enough baseballmemorabilia displayed to warm the heart of any sand lot aficionado.

6 My interests lie in themanufacturing outer sanctum of the plant held all the baseballmementos, and just at the plant tour entrance is a staticreplica of how the shopused to operate. Thefuture bat billets weredelivered as logs, whichwere cut to length andriven, split in eighths,resulting in the longtriangular shaped piecesyou see at left. The lathes were really interesting; they werecalled back-knife lathes, but these didn't have a back-knife nor were they technically a lathe as we think of one, rather they had what I would call a ProfileOctober 2009 - Home Metal Shop Club Newsletter.

7 As you can see, a large fixture supports hundreds of cutting blades, aligned to cut afull-length bat with one pass at the billet. These individual blades were identical to the blades oncabinetmakers hand-plane; small, flat, rectangles. The fixture provided mounting points and theblades were bolted to the apparatus, which provided approximate positioning. Retargeting andrealignment must have been a nightmare. Now imagine placing the triangular log segmentbetween the spindles, turning it at a high speed, and easing it into the counter-rotating Will Robinson!

8 Once in the plantproper, you are thentaken into thewoodturning lathearea, where manualturning isdemonstrated. Theythen take you to theautomated turningarea, and explain howthe Hemple Lathes were brought into the business, eliminating the 30 minute manual process,producing a profiled bat every thirty seconds. The cutter/vac assembly slides out of the way,back over the spindle, a billet is automatically centered, and then the cutter slides across thebillet, cutting the bat in one pass as it follows a plate steel template. Professional bats areturned in the same fashion, however they are produced singly on a CNC system.

9 Amazingly,little sawdust hits the floor, as the shop is surprisingly clean, with all of the collected waste goingto Maine turkey farmers for bedding. The roughed bat is sent to theautomated sanding systems, and then given the company brand. Ash batsare branded; Maple bats are labeled, being too structurally brittle to allow abrand. Aluminum Bats are manufactured in Blowing LatheBy J. R. WilliamsI finished making a dual headstock glassblowing lathe. Two slow speed steppermotors are fed by a common signalsource so the two timing belt drivenheadstocks are in synch.

10 Headstocks,chucks, and lathe bed were all made byTaig Corp. Both headstocks are mountedon beveled mounting plates attached tothe large base block and the cross is a rear mounted carbon gageblock that is pressed against the softenedglass with a profile specific to the partbeing formed. The gage block is pivotedand swings out of the way while heatingthe glass. The machine is intended formaking decorative oil lamp globes about1-1/2 inch diameter and six inches 2009 - Home Metal Shop Club Newsletter- vs. dBByDick KostelnicekMost mechanics know that decreasing the American Wire Gauge number (AWG) by 6 unitsdoubles wire diameter.