I spent a couple of hours this morning working on the new prototype
gear box housing. Here are some pictures.
I wore myself out operating that huge lathe.
That takes a lot of muscle to turn those big wheels.


I also discovered a new NC shop a mile or so from the airport.
The machines they have are the most fantastic huge NC machines I have every
seen out side of an NC show. The whole bed the part is bolted to pivots.

They are almost large enough to walk around inside. The billet gear
box housing would be a piece of cake,

Amazing machines.

Paul Lamar


Hi Paul,
       How big and how much $ for that piece of al that is in your lathe right now.
   Oh and what is the grade 6061? I might do mine the same way, saves doing a pattern.
       Cheers Chris.

6" dia by 11" long 60661 T6 $150 US including $15 cutting charge and 8.5% Cal tax.
50 pounds.

BTW Tracy's bolt circle dia. on the adapter plate is too large. It cost a lot more
money for 6.25" diameter billet. I will drill a new slightly smaller bolt circle on
my adapter plate. I think it should be 5.500" in diameter. His is 5.875".
He used a casting.

The ring gear is 5" OD so that gives us a 1/2 inch wall to work with.
Drilled head 1/4 " 20 course thread bolts can fasten the gear box to the
adapter plate by drilling and taping the gear box housing. That's about
6 mm but I don't think I can find them drilled or course thread in the US.
 You want to use course thread in taped aluminum.

Tracy used long 1/4 inch bolts about 10 inches long. Heavy and expensive
   just drilling the holes :-)

Let me know if billet  it is cheaper in Oz or NZ.

Paul Lamar

Hi Paul,
     Is 6061 weldable ? I will need to weld a flange to it. I will check out the
price of 6" bar stock today but I just know it will be dearer here.
     Cheers Chris. Hoskins

Yes it is weldable.

Paul Lamar

Paul

I found 6" OD-5"ID alum tube here:
https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=71&step=2


Yes I considered that. The housing would then be two pieces.
I thought of welding them together or bolting them together.
Neither idea appealed to me. One must seal them some how if bolted.

I think I am paying extra for material up front with a one pieces housing but saving money on labor later.

Robert LeClercq


I took Michael Nash's suggestion and used a hand held friction cut off tool and cut off the rest of the ring gear with that. Took about an hour and used 3/4 of the friction saw blade.

I single axis NC control would be ideal for the cross slide feed. A $60 Maximite could be programed to do that. A piece of cake. PWM of the DC motor.

I used a rod in the drill chuck to prevent the cut off piece from bouncing around in the hanger ;-)

This is a scary thing to do until one gets used to it.

The ring gear only needs to be one inch wide. Saved .6 pounds.

BTW the cloth caught fire so I replaced it with sheet metal.

Paul Lamar

Hi Paul.

My supplier in Oz sent me this quote (in Oz dollars, with tax)

Vern Taylor.
Darwin

Wow That is a really good price. Oz dollars are about .8 US dollar so that would be about $100 US.

I kind of suspected that because aluminum is mined and smelted in Oz.

Too bad shipping is so much.

Paul Lamar


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