Tag: project

Let’s make our own CMM….

Yup, this big arm is nice. I’ve got the power section working again, now I need to see how the rest of the electronics are working.

But…… this arm is too big for doing smaller pieces on my bench top. So I want to use the lessons learned so far to make my own. I have the Langmuir MR-1 cnc to make my aluminum parts, and I can buy carbon fiber tubes. Most of the hard work will be making sure there isn’t any slop in the joints.

This is the MR-1 cnc in the shop…

Gantry style 3 axis with tool measurement and touch probe. I’m really happy with this machine.

I started laying out the structures for the joints. I’m using encoders and carbon tubes available from Amazon. Who knows, someones else may want to build one and specialty suppliers are no fun.

Rhino 3D, the only CAD program I like to use. I have experience in Solid Works, Sketchup, Fusion 360. Rhino is the only one you buy and use, no subscriptions. Used Rhino4 for years up till a few months ago. Upgraded to Rhino8 commercial for less than a year of Fusion.

As you can see, picked up some nice looking carbon tube and started cutting pieces. Watch for future updates, when its running I will make a parts list. Maybe make a couple arms to sell if there are people wanting them.

Went for a short drive on the property….

I wasn’t supposed to receive the parts for the carburetor until after the weekend, so I hadn’t planned on working on the Model A until next week. Since I had a weekend ‘off’ I took my Mom and Grandma over to the coast on Saturday. When I got home I found my carb parts in the mail, and being me, I couldn’t just let them sit there. I was up rebuilding and double checking that carb until 1am, on top of about 6 hours driving earlier in the day.

Sunday morning I was a little slow in getting up, but a few cups of coffee helps with that. I grabbed the carb, starter, a few other small parts, and headed up to the property. The overhauled starter and switch worked good. The carb didn’t leak when fed some gas, so I set the timing and throttle on the steering wheel and it fired up nicely. Now, I just needed to put the seat on it. A piece of plywood left over from the shed flooring worked to mount the seat to the frame and I had a very ugly, but sturdy, place to sit.

Remember… this is just temporary until I work out all the drivetrain…

Yeah, some eye bleach is needed to get that vision out of your head. I’m going to have to post some renderings from my cad drawings of what it might look like some day so no one thinks I’m going to keep it like that.

If anyone wants to go along on it’s first two drives, here’s links to the videos…. Turn down your volume though, when reviewing the footage to post it I found the fuel cap rattling in front of the camera is about all you can hear. I’ll leave the cap off on future test drives since I’m not using the fuel tank to hold gas. Gas is in that bottle you will see hanging from the radiator in the videos.

 

The second video is a drive down the driveway at the property from Dad’s shop, out the second gate, turn around, and back to Dad’s shop. Not once do I leave the property.

On the bright side, no oil or water leaks so far.

 

Maybe that ‘leakless’ seal will actually work.