Okay, so anyway, Da Ol’ KludgeMeister Hisself has gotten to that point in life when his hands shake way too much to be useful. By and large, this isn’t a good thing. Watching me eat can be amusing, soup especially. Rice with chop sticks is especially hilarious. Sooo … we have to fix this, right? Not the eating part but the doing things mechanical and electronic part.
I’m sure everyone has heard of Waldos, remote manipulators named after devices in one of Robert Heinlein’s books. This is the direction I’m going as assisting devices. At the moment (and subject to change without prior notification) there will be three heavy duty arms on trolleys, two along the back of the work surface and one on the left side. Since it’s all of 16”x23”, none will be all that long but they have to be able to handle several pounds out at the ends of the arms which can make for some unpleasant loads. With each heavy arm will be one or two lightweight arms as helpers on the same trolleys. On the left side of the table will be the microcontrollers and much of the driver electronics while the power supplies will be on the right side. (I’ll hit the electronics in a separate topic.)
While I’ve sketched out a three segment arm, most if not all will be two segment. All of the arms follow the same basic design with variations for length and load bearing capability taken into account. Each has a “universal” tool mount, one each light and heavy according to the arm to which it’s attached, which remain parallel to a vertical plate at the mounting end of the arms. This allows a reference 0 position common among all the arms to make programming easier. Each arm has three motors associated with it, one for rotation and one each for extending the inner and outer arm segments. Additional wiring is provided to handle another three motors on the assorted tool heads plus extra for the tools themselves.
The heavy arms also have at least one pneumatic line (pressure or vacuum) and more likely two for assorted tools to help minimize the weight at the ends of the arms. I’m using air rather than hydraulics because I have the pumps and a few solenoid operated valves plus it’s less a mess in case anything leaks.
When I can get to them again, at least one of my lathes – my Unimat, to be exact – will also be getting steppers although not for CNC apps. It’ll be under computer control but in a slightly different way. It would be cool to do that to one or two of the others but there are cost factors involved. OTOH, the Clisby would be fun to do just for … well, fun. One thing I want to do is add a stepper to the milling column so I can position the milling head vertically. I have a second headstock (currently motorless) that’s dedicated to the milling head plus mounts so I can use it next to the bed rather than at one end of it. I also have an oversized bed for the cross slide to allow it to hold larger projects and have planned additional toys to allow workpieces to be angled and rotated. (This is in addition to the normal Unimat rotary thingie.) With a heavier motor on the headstocks than normal, this should wind up far more capable than the Taig with all its attachments.
Some tabletop tools will be built as well although I don’t have a comprehensive list as to what yet. The determining factor here is what I’ll still be able to do as time progresses.
One 350w computer supply will handle the electronics & motors while three 250w ones will manage the electric soldering & micro-welding duties. They’ll be switchable so I can have one, two or all three supplies on line. The 3.3v and 5v outputs will be tied together in parallel (3.3v with 3.3v and 5v with 5v, not all of them at once!) for DC arc welding while the 12v outputs can be or can be used separately for resistance soldering & welding plus charging the cap bank for a cap discharge spot welder. There’s more to it than that but that’s the basic outline.
I’m sure there’s more but I’ll add it later. Any thoughts are welcome of course.
