Author Topic: I needed a BIG spanner !  (Read 5661 times)

Offline awemawson

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I needed a BIG spanner !
« on: April 01, 2017, 02:06:43 PM »
Yes I needed a BIG spanner - a 55 mm AF spanner  :bugeye:

Why - well my CNC machine takes CAT40 - DIN 69871 tooling, and the TG100 collet holder that needed tightening takes 55 mm A/F spanner.

Now at the back of my bench lives Grandfathers old adjustable - yes it opens far enough, but a bit crude. Tucked away in my stash of metric spanners is a genuine 55 mm open ended spanner for tightening bolts on the Forth Bridge (yes I know it's riveted  :clap:) -it's a whopping great ungainly thing and far longer and more massive than I need  :bang:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2017, 02:14:58 PM »
So what to do  :scratch:

Well what's the point in having a workshop if you don't make it work for you - MAKE a spanner  :lol:

Some of you may have noticed that recently I've been playing upgrading my CNC Plasma Table - so cut one !

A quick Autocad drawing, save it as a .DXF, import it to SheetCAM - transfer the result to MACH3 and you should be good to go:

Here's the drawing
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2017, 02:19:43 PM »
Now I happened to have some 3 mm Zinctec mild steel sheet on the table at the time - I'd intended to cut it from 6 mm but that would probably have been overkill as after all it's only closing a collet.

Result was absolutely splendid, though I say it myself  :clap:

The total job took under 10 minutes, from deciding to do it, to taking the final result off the rails of the plasma table, and the best part of that was working out how to draw a hexagonal in Autocad !

... very satisfying

(oh did I say - I LOVE my CNC Plasma Table !!!)
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline ieezitin

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2017, 02:37:49 PM »
Nice job Andrew.. well done on your build, your shop time effort has resulted your capabilities 3 fold with this machine and its ability to quickly manufacture most things quickly.

Anthony.
If you cant fix it, get another hobby.

Offline John Rudd

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2017, 02:40:44 PM »
One word sums it up....

Jealous!....  :bow:
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Offline RussellT

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2017, 02:43:55 PM »
Nice Job Andrew. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Did you think about a 12 point one?

Russell
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Offline shipto

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2017, 02:46:47 PM »

... very satisfying

(oh did I say - I LOVE my CNC Plasma Table !!!)
Rightly so its something we could probably make use of at work (I certainly could anyway  :lol: but I suppose that would be too much like forward thinking for my place  :Doh:)
Turns out this life c**p is just one big distraction from death but a good one. For the love of god dont give yourself time to think.
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Offline Spurry

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2017, 02:48:33 PM »
Andrew, lovely job...again. :D
Can't help but think 6mm would have been kinder on the old fingers, although it's only a collet to tighten.
Pete

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2017, 02:54:20 PM »
Nice Job Andrew. :clap: :clap: :clap:

Did you think about a 12 point one?

Russell

Little point (sorry, unintentional pun!) Russell - the holder sits inverted in a 'CAT 40 receiver' in the bench vice for tightening, and the spanner never leaves the nut.

Oh and Pete, the 3 mm thick handle only gets a firm hand tweak, then is tapped tight with a nylon mallet, so my fingers don't really suffer !
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline mattinker

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2017, 03:01:57 PM »
Looks like a sort of giant mecano spanner!

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2017, 03:06:30 PM »
.... he he, I knew I recognized it from my dim and distant past !

Incidentally, I understand that Meccano is no long made in Binns Road, Liverpool, but in the Pas de Calais - what is the world coming to  :scratch:
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline mattinker

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2017, 03:57:40 PM »
No politics!!

Offline PekkaNF

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #12 on: April 02, 2017, 01:24:58 AM »
That is the spirit!

Now when you have the steam up, no dout you are building tightening fixture to complement it?
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Pekka

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #13 on: April 02, 2017, 03:41:14 AM »
Well Pekka, I don't have anything QUITE so fancy  :palm:

My tightening fixture is a simple tapered bore, a restraining lug, and a pair of flats to clamp in the vice - obviously home made, but not by me - I picked it up in a collection of tooling that I bought and it's proved very useful.

Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline awemawson

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #14 on: April 02, 2017, 03:51:42 AM »
If it's fancy you want I do have a very fancy Tool Pre-Setter that lets you measure and set tool offsets off the machine - very nice bit of kit. I bought it as a 'basketcase' on a chance, but luck was on my side as it turns out that PCM have a small sales office only a couple of miles down the road - I was able to chat them up and extract enough technical information to get it fully functional  :ddb:


... that said - I rarely use it, and usually measure and set tools on the Beaver Partsmaster directly, using the Heidenhain probe to set references and a Vertex Z height setter to compare lengths.
Andrew Mawson
East Sussex

Offline PekkaNF

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Re: I needed a BIG spanner !
« Reply #15 on: April 02, 2017, 04:03:15 AM »
But ofcourse you do :beer:

Those tightening fixtures are very usefull and they don't need to be anything fancy, just good lugs to restrain the torque and good enenoug taper (short one will do) to keep the taper in good condition. Here is one tool that it's better when it is soft. No fancy heat treatig is needed, unless you like annealing one!

Pekka