I am building molds for casting a large plastic product . The product will be rotational molded. To accomplish this I will build several machines.I have built a machine for shaping laminated wood rings. These rings will go on the large lathe to create a patern for the sand casting of the material for the rotational mold.
Machining a part for the vertical router
Rotary Table assembly for vertical router
Jesse Thomson ( Invention Works co founder) helps inspect wood patern blank after processing with The vertical router we built.
Metal Casting
This is the top of the metal casting furnace. You can see the rebar I installed
Another tool I had to build. I need to cast an aluminum mold. This casting will then be machined to finish. After the patern is finished, we will make a sand mold. Then we will pour an aluminum casting. I needed a casting furnace much larger that the little furnace I built several years ago. This time I decided to fire it with oil. It worked fantastic. It melted old briggs and straton blocks very fast. The crucible in this is 10" in dia x 21" tall. With both furnaces going I should have plenty of melt.
04-07-2010
Jesse Thomson stands next to the finished furnace we built. We are going to fire it up shortly.
This is the first melt. I threw in a couple Briggs and Stratton blocks. In about 10 mins they were fluid. You can see the steel liners above the melt.
We did some modifications. We added more air and fuel for hotter temp, and we added a cable hoist to lift the large crusibles with
Jesse Thomson lifts 1st full melt with added hoist.
This furnace is much hotter now. We added more air, and more fuel
Jesse Thomson pours a couple block of aluminum for a project he is doing.
This is one side of the patern Steve made for the parts
Patern is installed in flask, we are now packing the sand with a air hammer. We welded a plate on the end of a tool to allow the use of a air hammer. You can see the pouring and venting cores
Steve Kreider cleans ot the runners in the mold. We were very pleased the way this first mold turned out.
We install flux into the melt. This helps clean up the metal. It took 2o min to prepare and melt 25 lbs of aluminum.
We are pouring aluminum into the mold
We could not stand to waite any longer. We let the mold cool for about 1/2 hour. We placed the mold on our sand box and knocked it apart. Steve Kreider, Jesse Thomson and Scott Goodman waite outcome
We clean up the casting a little
Wow, it came out perfect. Steve, Jesse, and Scott inspect cast part.
WE BUILT A LARGER FURNACE THAN SOME. WE HAVE SEVERAL LARGE CASTINGS TO MOLD. THESE LARGE CASTINGS MEAN WE WILL NEED A LOT OF SAND. WE ARE BUILDING A LARGE MIXER FOR THE SAND. WE WILL NEED TO BUILD A MOLD WORKING TABLE.
We scrounged parts from an old bailer. Lots of good parts on Bailers, shafts gears sprockets, chains, steel
We turned a mounting for the flex plate we are using for the gear reduction
We are turning down the shaft to press mount the gear from a old starter on. This will be the pinion for the gear reduction.
We have the body of the mixer almost done. It is mostly parts from a old bailer.
We are locating the position of the belt to gear drive device
We are mounting the motor from a hot tub pump on the mixer, almost done.
This page is getting a bit large. Our projects will continue on Your projects page 2
04-25-2010
Lee Wilerson gave me a Bradford 28 x 132" cone head lathe. It will swing 32 inches over the ways. It was disassembled to restore. It is in very good condition. I had to have it moved by the end of Dec.
This ment I had to modify a 3 axle boat trailer I acquired. It was 9 ft wide and 3 ft too short. I narrowed the axles, extended it, added cross members, fixed brakes, installed lights and wiring, packed bearings, and added a deck to it. We worked on it till midnight, then till noon the day we left. Oh yea it snowed. I spent a couple weeks working on this trailer in snow and temps 15 - 30 deg.
Jesse Thomson an Invention Works founder and I took our trucks to Richland Wash to pick up the lathe on Dec 23 2009 (my anniversary) My lovely wife is supportive. Jesse had a equalizer hitch so he pulled the trailer for me. We got to Richland Wa about 630pm. The person giving me the lathe helped us load all the smaller pieces till around 1030 pm. We got a motel and returned in the morning to load the lathe bed and misc pieces. We got home on Christmas eve and unlaoded Jesse's truck. All went very smooth. Sat I unloaded my truck.
Now the job comes to make room in the shop. The reassemble the lathe. Cant wait to cut metal with it. I do have a project I needed this machine for.
Durring this project I founded a new manufacturing business, Innovative Products LLC, and worked on the application project for the IRS 501c3 needed by the Invention Works, as well as running Country Town Drilling, Talk about burning the candle at both ends. But that is what keeps life interesting, right? Oh yea Christmas and new year came and went also.
Invention Works founder Steve kreider works on trailer to haul lathe with
Jesse helping load lathe bed onto trailer Dec 23 2009
Bradford cone head lathe 28 x 132 prior to disassembly for restoration.
We are working in the snow, with the help of a backhoe, inventors Stephen Kreider and Scott Goodman work the lathebed into the shop.
Wow, It just fit. It takes up most of the wall. Jan 11 2010
Lathe is comming together. Everything is big and heavy. Headstock is in place, table is on the bed, tailstock is in place. Apron is being assembled. Still a long way to go. Yes I had to put some paint on it.
I had to make some parts for this lathe, Not many were missing thank goodness.
I had to hand file the drive lugs in two apron gears. Lee Wilkerson got a good start on them. These are tapered and fit through the side of the gear. They are to be a tight wedged fit.
Lee Wilkerson did a lot of prep work on this lathe, but there was still a lot of parts cleaning left to do
I sat the carraige on the lathe, now we are assembling the apron
Wow, almost too tall, Here we are setting motor and jack shaft on the lathe.
Installing the driven pully on the jackshaft was even a challenge. The cast iron pully is 3ft in dia, it is quite heavy also
Lathe motor assembly is now installed. The belt is in bad shape. I put leather oils on the belt and trid to stretch it back to shape. I orderd a new one.
I found the starter was set up for 480 volts. I had to rewire the transformer for 230 volts and I had to order new heater coils. This panel is a bit old. I found them on ebay
Scott Goodman, and Jesse Thomson, Invention Works co founders help me figure out the drive gears, There are 2 layers of gears, here is the first layer.
1/18/2009
I am building this page for projects that people are working on or finished. Machines for making items, Items that are in production you have developed. Please do not send copyrighted materials. If you have a project you are doing, if you would like to share it with us I will attempt to place it here for awhile. Email it to me at SteveKreider@invent-manufacture.com
Pictures of making parts to adapt mill head to Cincinnati Horizontal mill
Mounting Mill head to adapter
Jesse is bringing this milling machine to his shop. He will restore this machine for building his project
Jesse is fitting bearings in the gearbox of the Kemp Smith milling machine
There are many stages of inventing and manufacturing. Some people like Jesse, enjoy developing the concept. Then building the prototype, then producing the product. Some of this process can require specialized machines. These machines dont need to be brand new. You can purchase used machines and restore them . Jesse has located a Kemp Smith horizontal milling machine that has a vertical milling head attached. This machine will be a great addition to Jesse's shop. He will be able to create tools, parts, molds, etc for his projects with this.
Have you built a special tool, or item that has made your life a little easier? Would you share it with us? Email me a picture and a little description of it. I will try to place it on our site for awhile. It might help make someone else's job easier also. Email it to me at SteveKreider@invent-manufacture.com .
