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CAD model of the carving
machine. This took several hours on Saturday. The machine
is designed to mount plastic cylinders between the centers of the
rotarty axis. The machine will carve a screw auger into the cyliner of
plastic.
A wood router is mounted on the flat table with
it's cutter sticking down the hole and cutting the plastic to form a
screw auger.
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On Sunday, slicing 100
cuts into the worm wheel with a 24dp gear cutter. The indixing
head makes 100 evenly spaced divisions of the wheel. The cutter
is set to 4 degrees to match the lead angle of the worm screw.
The worm wheel is one of the more interesting of the 20 custom made
parts in this machine.
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Another view of slashing the
worm wheel.
This slicing prepares the worm wheel for the hobbing step in the next
picture.
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Now with a section of acme screw
shaft cut with sharp 90 degree groves to form a hob shaped like a
tap. the worm wheel is mounted on a bearing shaft and the hob is
mounted in the spindle and run against the worm wheel. The wheel is fed
into the hob and a perfect cut is made to fit the wheel to the hob.
A short compressed VIDEO of this hobbing.
This hob is the tap used to make the X axis nut from UHMWPE
plastic. The same plastic used for the worm wheel, X axis slides
and X lead screw support bearing.
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Here is the machine at the end
of 1 day of building, Sunday evening.
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A short VIDEO of the machine running on
Monday.
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All that is left to do is make
the work holders, put some legs on the frame and mount the router.
The cost of all parts including the stepper motors is about $60.
Construction time about 25 hours with 2 people working part of 2 days. |
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With legs, guard for the worm
drive and paint.
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Front view
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Here is a 2 minute video of the machine carving a 3 lead auger.
The machine has completed 2 of the 3 threads.
The material is UHMWPE plastic.
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