Author Topic: Making a flywheel  (Read 58523 times)

bogstandard

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Making a flywheel
« on: March 10, 2009, 05:05:23 PM »
Due to massive demand (two people actually), I will be showing how I make flywheels, from the raw material to the finished item, with all the gory details being shown. This will be the first time I have actually done this, showing everything in one post.


I have a little cast iron flywheel stash, but very very rarely use them on the small engines I make. I prefer to make my own. It takes a just as long to clean up a cast flywheel to a show state as it does to make your own. But cast does score in that they usually have a lot of mass, and the spoke design on some of them is difficult to reproduce when cutting your own.




So another member and myself will be making some very nice beam engines from plans, and because I will require two flywheels for the ones I will be building, it is just as easy to make another one for him while I am at it.
This is the drawing for the ones we require.
If you notice, the main flywheel width is 12mm whilst the hub is 15mm wide. I have lots of 12.5mm plate but very little 15mm and above, so I have decided to make the main bit out of 12.5mm plate and fit a brass hub to take it out to 15mm. This will also make the flywheel a lot more interesting, with the contrast between brass and ali.




So here we see the materials gathered together. The over sized marked circles will be cut on my bandsaw, and the brass hex with be turned and shaped to make the hubs.



That's it for now.

Don't worry if you have seen all this before, I am sure you will pick up a few new tips as I get into murdering the metal.

Bogs.

Offline rleete

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2009, 08:38:07 PM »
Looking forward to another episode on the Bogstandard Education Network.

Just try not to bleed all over things this time, eh?
Creating scrap, one part at a time

Offline Divided he ad

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #2 on: March 10, 2009, 08:52:50 PM »
Well I'm up for the flywheel workshop   :thumbup:  :dremel: 


I'm going to have to get this spoke thing into my head one day!!!  :)





Looking forward to it John   :ddb:




Ralph.
I know what I know and need to know more!!!

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2009, 02:05:40 AM »
Rleete,

Those were my bloodthirsty days, I have given up cannibalism now (well almost, just a door to door saleman occasionally).


Ralph,

I know you have been putting this off for ages.  :poke:

This is about the easiest flywheel shape to do, with straight spokes. So if you can understand this post when it is finished, everything else will be a natural progression from it, and the only limitation will be your imagination.


Bogs


bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2009, 08:50:51 PM »
So here we are, part two of this scintillating exercise (yawn). I have done this so many times in the past, it is now difficult to remember all the stages, as I normally do it without thinking. This one does have a couple of differences as I will be making multiple units.

Someone asked a short while back whether they could leave the corners on the bits as they turned them into a dsic, and I said they could, and to prove a point, I have left the blanks as they came off the bandsaw instead of hacking them nearly round.




On the pop marks I had made to draw the circles, I drilled thru with a 6mm drill (I will be using metric for this post as the part is metric). If you will be needing a smaller hole than this thru the flywheel when finished, then of course you will drill the hole smaller than the finished size. I will be opening these holes out to fit a brass centre boss.
I stuck a bit of double sided tape to the backs of two of them and found a piece of 6mm rod, just a bit longer than  the width of the 3 parts put together.




The block was assembled over the bit of rod with the tape on the two inside joints.




The block was then clamped up in a vice in a few different places, to get a good strong joint made.




I grabbed a bit of bar end (32mm) from the recycle box and mounted it up in the three jaw.




It was faced up and a 6mm hole drilled thru it.




The slug was turned around and a centre was wacked into it. No need to face it up.
The slug was removed and I forgot to take a shot of the next operation.
All I did was to put a large diameter of bar end into the jaws, towards the back, so none was protruding out the front. When the jaws were tightened up, the front part of the jaws were just smaller than the required diameter of the job (100mm).




The just machined slug was slipped onto the centre bar with the faced off side against the metal to be turned. The bar was pushed in a bit so that it wouldn't touch the point of the centre. You could pop a bit of superglue onto the bar to hold it in position (DEFINITELY DO NOT USE LOCTITE), but I have always found it won't move anyway.




On the back end of the plates, I would have normally used masking tape, to give the friction drive, but because I had run out, I used wide double sided tape without removing the backing.




The plates were offered up to the chuck jaws and the live centre wound forwards to sit in the centre drilling, and the plates were trapped between the live centre and the chuck jaws. Do NOT be tempted to use a solid centre, it will not work.
For doing a single plate, you can just use a centre drilling on the plate and do away with the rod and slug.




Here is a shot from another angle showing how the chuck jaws are on the back plate.
Swing the chuck by hand to make sure you won't get any fouling on any part of the machine, with the tool in both the fwds and backwards position.




Tentative steps were taken in the beginning to see how much the friction drive could take. I ended up at a 1mm depth of cut. With a smaller lathe that could be as low as a quarter of that. If the plates stop turning, just take the cut off, tighten up a bit on the centre and come in again with a shallower cut. Normally, as I said, I would have trimmed the discs up a lot closer using my bandsaw.
You can just see the bit of barstock I stuck in the jaws to get them to the right diameter.




If you are doing an interrupted cut as I am doing, then use your chip guard if you have one. The bits flying off here are red hot and razor sharp, not the usual curly stuff you get with ali, that comes later when the plates are almost to size.




I started to get curly swarf coming off in small pieces, so I stopped the machine to see how close I was getting. A few more 1mm cuts and I would be onto full circle discs.




Skimming the discs up to the size I required for this time.




This is what you get if you don't trim off most of the excess beforehand. Thousands upon thousands of mini razor blades.




Here are the discs, just been split apart.
The reason for the gloves. Unlike the edges you can get to and take the sharp edges off, the two inside joints have edges like cut throat razors. Until those edges have been smoothed off, the gloves stay on.




After cleaning off they were measured. Perfect size for what I want to do. If you notice on the drawing, there is a hole drilled in the outer rim to allow the grub screw positioning and thread cutting. After that exercise is carried out, I want to fill the outer hole in with a bit of ali bar, then reskim the surface to clean it up. That little bit extra will allow for that to be done without going undersized.



So we now have three fairly accurate discs. The next steps will be to get them back onto the lathe to profile them a bit, then onto the RT to start cutting the spokes.


Bogs

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2009, 02:58:21 AM »
That Brilliant John

 :ddb:  :ddb:  :ddb:  :ddb:


More please

Stew
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Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2009, 01:17:11 PM »
Only just found this post John......  ::)

But you`ve got me attention now! 

Thank you! :thumbup:

David.
David.

Still drilling holes... Sometimes, in the right place!

Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!

Offline Darren

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2009, 01:21:44 PM »
I like the way you held those bit on the lathe John.... :thumbup:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2009, 01:45:30 PM »
For those who have seen me make flywheels from plate will have seen these techniques used before. And they are legitimate ways to hold, it is classed as a safe method, and can be used to make plates almost as large as the swing of the lathe, as long of course you don't start to try to make 20" diameter by 1/32" thick. But you could make a dozen of them stacked together.

It was for the reason of people not seeing it being done before, was the final sway for me showing it.

I hope to show you a few more bits and bobs before it is finished.

I have got the next stage of disc preparation already in my camera, so I may make a post up about that, before showing the final spoke cutting bit when I get to it.

John

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2009, 08:08:48 PM »
This might look like a bit of a long winded post, but I am also trying to show a few things you don't normally see along the way, and explain what it is all about.

You must have read about me going on about soft jaws, and how I use them to achieve super accuracy.
I once read a post from a supposed 'expert' who stated that he used soft jaws because they didn't mark the metal he was holding in his three jaw, as they were softer than the metal he was gripping with the jaws.
How many people went away from that post thinking it was true, and didn't pursue them any further?
Maybe he was partially right, but I will tell you the correct reason for using soft jaws. They allow you to make jaws that are perfectly concentric, and because they are made for a specific part, they hold that part perfectly so machining can be carried out to high degrees of accuracy over and over again.
Soft jaws are one of the cheapest routes to go down to obtain super accuracy. I am such a believer in them, I won't buy a self centring chuck for my lathe or rotary table unless soft jaws are available for them. In fact I have a version that I use in my 5c collet chuck that allows me even more perfection than collets allow, and also I can easily skim say 2 thou off the face of a washer only 15 thou thick, and up to 4" in diameter. Try that in your normal 3 jaw.

So what are they?
They are a set of jaws made from soft iron to fit your 3 or 4 jaw self centring chuck. They can easily be bored using a normal boring bar to fit the circular part you want to hold.

Normally you would use your outside jaws for holding the blanks you have already made up from plate material, and hope that they don't have much built in runout. There is nothing worse on a show engine than a wobbly flywheel. But soft jaws can be used for many things where you want perfect concentricity, and also you can easily get repetitive quality on a batch production.

So away we go on how I use my soft jaws.
As you can see, the jaws are just a lump of iron with a scroll on the back and fit into the chuck like normal jaws, they are numbered as well, just like normal. BTW, what you think is rust on the chuck isn't, I haven't cleaned all the grease off it yet.
I have already rough bored these jaws for another job, but didn't finish the boring off, the job was done in a smaller chuck eventually.
Soft jaws should last the life of the chuck (I reckon on 5 years on the quantity of production work I do), and do need to be planned out so you don't waste the valuable material in the jaws. I start out by having the jaws as wide as possible to begin with, and over time, gradually bring the chuck jaws inwards. Once you get to a stage where the face is full of old bored holes, you skim the whole face back to flat and start again. I will also modify pre bored holes for new jobs. Once the jaws are removed from the chuck, even if used for the same job, they must be rebored, as they don't always go back in the same exact position.
Because of the surface area of the bored gripping surface, you will find that the jaws don't need to be bored very deep, as long as you are not taking massive cuts you can hold large jobs on a very shallow bored hole. For my 12mm thick job, I am boring only 4mm deep.
What I have done here is to get a billet of metal and put it at the back of the jaws and tightened the jaws down onto it. This isn't released until all boring and cleaning up is completed. The billet size is selected to allow the bored hole for your job to be bored without removing excess material, just enough to give a good back support for the part.
Soft jaws are not really for holding long bars, but if you want to waste jaw material, you can bore as deep as your setup billet.




Now onto doing the job, and here is a little tip on getting your boring bar to the correct height. My main boring bars use replaceable tips that angle downwards, and are a pig to set up by any other method.
What I do is put a bit of felt tip marker on one of the jaws, then using a tool of known correct height, scribe a line on the jaw.




Without moving the chuck, put your boring bar in the toolpost and bring it to line up with the previously scribed line. Your boring bar is now on centre.
Just a note here, you need a very robust boring bar because of the interrupted cuts. Flimsy ones are liable to get snapped off.




It is now just a matter of very careful boring until the part JUST fits into the hole. I then give the back face of the hole a skim over to smooth out any irregularities, and if you feel up to it, put a tiny undercut into the corner of the bore. Now it is a matter of very carefully deburring all areas of the bore.
You only need about 1/10th of a turn on the chuck key to release the spacer plug, and open and close enough to remount the part. The less you can move it, the better it will retain it's accuracy.




This is what the finished bore should look like, nice and clean, and totally burr free in the gripping areas.




So after all that, I mounted one of the discs into the chuck, put a cut on and sat back with a fag and a cup of well deserved coffee.




I skimmed up the front of all three blanks, then turned them over and put a single cut on to bring them all to thickness. No detectable thickness difference between all three.
I am not saying you should aim for this sort of tolerance, on a flywheel, near enough is usually good enough. I am just showing how good a cheap set of soft jaws takes you into the realms of super accuracy.




I rough marked up where the recess should end up, and mounted up my trepanning/recess tool.




The recess was quickly brought to the correct size and depth, then the other five sides were soon wacked out using the same settings.




After a bit of a deburr they are now ready to be set up on the RT for having the spokes cut.
I am not too worried about the rough finish, that will all be cleaned up and polished later.



So now you know how soft jaws work, I hope I haven't bored (pun) you too much.

Because of my interchangeable setup for the lathe and rotary table

http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=422.0

I will be boring you again when I set my four jaw self centring up for doing these parts on the RT.

Bogs


Offline foozer

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2009, 09:56:04 PM »
Due to massive demand (two people actually), I will be showing how I make flywheels, from the raw material to the finished item, with all the gory details being shown. This will be the first time I have actually done this, showing everything in one post.
Bogs.

Make that THREE
Ignorance is Bliss, thus I aim for Perfection

Offline Divided he ad

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2009, 03:43:51 AM »
I used my soft jaws the other day, holding some very small discs for machining.... Woked a treat  :)

I'm one of those who have as you know John seen much of your methods before..... But I'm still waiting for the next bit... well the bit where you set up and cut out the spokes (you know this already!)

I've just got some sort of mental block with this one.... I'll eventually have to spend an afternoon on spoke making..... I'll read all of this post first though  :thumbup:


Quote
There is nothing worse on a show engine than a wobbly flywheel
Ooops!  :(   I ended up with pretty over accuracy  ::)   But I'm trying! Most of their life mine will be on a shelf, not running.... So I suppose I kind of got away with it!?!   Well everyone has to start somewhere ehh?

I'm taking all the important stuff in John  :thumbup:


Keep it up. every bit helps  :dremel:   :)   




Ralph.
I know what I know and need to know more!!!

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2009, 05:51:16 AM »
I know you are chomping at the bit Ralph, and hopefully by the end of the last article, you will have the method straight in your head.

I am in a quandry about it as well. I have to try and get it down in laymans terms, so it will be understood by everyone. It is easy describing it in technical terms to technical people, it is the people on their first journey into doing it that is the problem.

It is like trying to tell someone how long is a bit of string when you have nothing to gauge it against. And no, fold it in half, and double the result is not the way to get it across.

John

Offline Darren

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #13 on: March 14, 2009, 07:23:46 AM »
Looking good so far John, is that a lathe tool finish or did you scotch them?

I'm really looking forward to the next bit, I have an idea of how, but it will no doubt be much clearer after one of your posts. It usually is  :clap:
You will find it a distinct help… if you know and look as if you know what you are doing. (IRS training manual)

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2009, 08:26:19 AM »
Just a bit of fairly rough sponge backed emery block, to knock the corners off.

I doubt if it will be today, I feel the need for a couple of days crashing out.

John

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #15 on: March 14, 2009, 08:52:31 AM »
Looking forward to the next installment Great work John..

:clap:  :clap:  :clap:

 :ddb:  :ddb:  :ddb:

Stew


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Offline Stilldrillin

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #16 on: March 14, 2009, 09:53:56 AM »
I doubt if it will be today, I feel the need for a couple of days crashing out.

John

Hope you enjoy your break John......  :thumbup:
David.

Still drilling holes... Sometimes, in the right place!

Still modifying bits of metal... Occasionally, making an improvement!

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #17 on: March 17, 2009, 03:53:35 PM »
I retrieved my camera from the workshop last night, and have found enough pics on it to make another instalment of this epic saga.
All this to make one flywheel. But as I said, I will be doing it from the roots up, and showing how I do other things as well, complete with the reasons I do it that way.
Sorry to be showing a lot of people how to suck eggs, you should just filter out the bits you need.

I have skinned the plans down, to show you all the dimensions that you need to make this flywheel are already provided on the plans.

1 - 6 spokes. So 360 degrees divided by 6 = 60.  So if you were doing 5 spokes, 360/5 = 72 degrees.

2 - The radius required for each corner. So you would double that figure to give you your drill size. 2x4mm = 8mm.

3 - The internal diameter of the flywheel rim where you will be cutting to. This will require dividing in half, then have the radius of your drill subracted as well to put you in the correct position for drilling. 84/2 = 42. Then 42-4 = 38mm. That is the centre point for your drill, measured from the centre point of your RT.

4 - This is the PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter) for the position of the drill centre point near the central hub. You need to half that figure to give you the distance from the RT centre point, 26/2 = 13mm.

5 - The width of the spokes. You need to half the width of the spokes and add the radius of the curve (half the drill size). This will give you the offset from the RT centre point to end up with the spokes of the correct width. 5/2 = 2.5mm, add the radius, 2.5+4 = 6.5mm.

I always work in the Y axis for the main hole centres, and in the X axis for spoke width offset.

This all sounds very complicated at the moment, and sometimes it can be. But later on in this post I hope that the way I will be showing it done will clarify everything.

I will just add now, cutting flywheels is a job where total concentration is required. One mistake and you will be modifying the design slightly. There are natural stop points during the process, so if you need to take a break, it should be done then. Never stop half way thru a machining cycle, in this case, if say you were cutting the side face of the spokes, you would complete all six sides before having a break. A big sign on the workshop door of DO NOT DISTURB will help.




I would suggest you go thru this article from front to back, and watch all the short vids as well. It gives you a basic insight into how a rotary table works and some pointers on how to set it up.

http://www.jjjtrain.com/vms/mill_rotary/mill_rotary_01.html

So now onto the rotary table itself.
There are basically two bits of attachable machinery that allow you to do jobs on a mill. The straight line attachment is your vice. The RT allows you to do all the curvy bits (with a few straight bits if needed).

When buying an RT for your mill, it can turn into a bit of a minefield, and you can end up with one that will only do half of what you require.
It is all to easy to run out of depth. That is the distance from the bottom of your quill to the table. By the time you have added say the height of the chuck and jaws plus component. Put a collet chuck in the quill and added the cutter, things will start to get tight, to such an extent, you can't even change cutters or drills without moving way off centre, then coming back to centre again. The distance between the two on my machine is 14", and I wish I had a couple of inches more. A lot of people get around it by not using a chuck, and set everything up on the RT face, but chucks do make life a lot easier.

RT's come in all shapes, sizes and even ratios of the worm gear. So really I can only concentrate on what I use, you will have to work out how to do the same thing with yours. The main difference is the ratio, so you will have to find out how the vernier system works on your one to get the minutes and seconds of a degree. But in the case of this flywheel, only full numbers are used.

You can buy fairly low profile RT's, that address the height problem, but they are usually limited to horizontal use only, they don't have the built in castings to go to vertical operation. This can usually be solved by using an angle plate to put them in the vertical position. So if you are tight for height, maybe that would be the way to go.
For most small mill users, they have 3" & 4" RT's, that will do an admirable job, and if you get say an 3" or 4" chuck on there, will cope with most jobs you come across, and by taking the chuck off, even though you only have a small table, if you can get the job clamped down to it, will allow you to go to extraordinary radii for cutting and drilling if a little care is taken. Size isn't everything when it comes to RT's. Big is nice, but not compulsary.


So I had better stop beating my gums and get on with the job, but I will also be giving a bit more info in these first few pics.
I centred up my RT using a gizmo my mate brought back from the States for me. They are available in the UK if you search them out. It is called a coaxial indicator, and he got it for me from LMS.

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2060&category=

And boy, does it make the job easy, but it does have a down side, it eats into those precious height inches. By the time you get the chuck and part on there, it becomes a bit of a tight squeeze, but well worth it if you have the facilities and need. Otherwise, you will have to use your normal DTI system.
I suppose this could also be used on the lathe for say centring up your tailstock to the chuck, or for setting up in the four jaw. I haven't tried that yet, but will do in the future.




This is the RT I have used for a long while. It is a Vertex 6" horizontal/vertical one, that also by changing the handle for a disc set, can be used as a dividing head as well. Normally on these sizes of RT they have a 2MT centre to the table. Smaller tables can sometimes have just a plain hole, and it is the central hole that you use for centring the table up.




I have modified my table to take a Myford nose adapter, so that I can use a range of chucks and plates on it, and on my lathe as well, so I can swap between the two at will. It just speeds up the way I personally do things, and for normal users isn't necessary.




This is the normal method for mounting a backplate. This is one to fit an 80mm 3 jaw onto my RT, and was turned up on the lathe. Four t-nuts secure it to the table faceplate. To assist on the centring up onto the RT it has a hole bored thru the centre of it, done at the same time the spigot was cut for mounting the chuck.




A back view, showing the chuck retaining bolt holes and the t-nuts and bolts.




This is the other bit of the puzzle, a MT blank arbor turned down on the end to be a very snug fit into the hole in the backplate.




This is how it fits together. First the arbor is put into the RT central hole, and tapped down into position. Then the backplate with fitted chuck is put onto the sticky up bit. The backplate is then bolted down onto the RT table.
The chuck is automatically centred up onto the table, with the added advantage of not having to stuff paper down the middle hole to stop your chucked up bits dropping down the well, usually necessitating the removal of the RT table from the mill table to retrieve them.
If any visitors to me have the same sort of setup and would like this backplate and bits for their RT, remind me and it will be yours. I have no further use for it.




Sorry about all this drolling stuff, but we are starting to come to the bit where I get to cut some metal.
So the RT is now onto the table, centred up at 0,0, the chuck has been fitted, with your outside jaws in the chuck and the part to be machined in the jaws.
Unfortunately, in my case, I am not quite ready. What do I spy on the end of the table to the right.




You guessed it.
In my case, I fit a set of soft jaws and machine them up to fit the part. I have a definite fetish for accuracy, I just hope you don't catch it, and use your outside jaws, just like normal people.




So the job is held tight in the chuck jaws, and I have the angle set to zero on the RT.




The main table was set to zero both in the X & Y axis.




We start to set up to drill. I will be doing the inside set first, because this is the easiest to do to begin with. An 8mm drill is in the chuck.
The drill points around the circle will be 30, 90, 150, 210, 270 & 330 degrees. These are the centre points between the main spokes.
So I set the first one to 30 degrees.




The Y offset was set to 13mm.




It was at this point I started to lose it and forgot to take pictures.
I drilled each hole just over 9mm deep at the above angles and offset, this depth was because I don't want the drill tip to hit any part of the chuck jaws. This pic was after I had finished the full circle.




The RT angle was then set to zero. The placement of the holes on the outside circle is 0, 60, 120, 180, 240 & 300 degrees.




The Y offset was then moved to 38mm (remember the workings out on the drawing), the position of the outside holes.




Then the table was moved to a positive reading in the X axis of 6.5mm. This is to give us our spoke widths.




This pic shows the drill at the outside and offset position.
Again, no drilling pictures. I drilled the series of six holes at 60 degree spacing.




The only adjustment done on this manouvre was to move the X axis to -6.5mm, then the repeat drilling of the set of six holes at 60 degree spacing, the same setting angles as the previous set.




If you managed to follow my instructions, you should have ended up with a set of holes looking like the pic below, except for the blue marking, I put that on to show when the blue bit was removed, you would be left with the makings of your flywheel.



It was at this point I gave up.

I know most of you don't have the equipment I have, and will have to rely on using your X & Y handles to give the offsets. I showed the DRO's display because it was the easiest way of showing what was required at each operation.

Once you can get the basic understanding of what is required to make a flywheel cutout on the RT, you will soon be doing what I do, plan it out on a bit of paper and just cut away. Believe me, once you have got the first one under your belt, you will kick yourself for not doing it before. It really is a reasonably easy operation to do. But time consuming at times.

This bit is now open to questions if anything at all is wrong in your eyes, or more than likely, not undertood. I would like to get them out of the way before proceeding any further.

When I get back to it, there is very little to do except cut the centres out. But again that is done using offsets, so you end up with a flywheel that just requires a bit of hand dressing before use.


John
« Last Edit: March 17, 2009, 04:02:56 PM by bogstandard »

Offline Bernd

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #18 on: March 17, 2009, 04:15:26 PM »
Nice one John.  :thumbup:

One question: where did you turn the jaws? In the lathe or did you use the mill and rotary table? Sorry, that was two.

Bernd
Route of the Black Diamonds

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #19 on: March 17, 2009, 05:15:19 PM »
Bernd,

All I did was pop the soft jaws into the chuck on the RT, tightened them down onto a bar end, like when doing it on the lathe, put a cut on and turned the RT handle (standard cut, no climb milling). The milling cutter does a very nice job of it in a couple of minutes, very little cleaning up to do.

Normally, I would have done this chuck soft jaws and blanks on the lathe, then just unscrew it all and pop it onto the RT. But I wanted to show how soft jaws were done with a standard lathe chuck. Not my own little special setup of transferring between the two machines.

John

Offline jemglen

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #20 on: March 18, 2009, 05:39:47 AM »
Very interesting John  :thumbup: and very enjoyable and instructive. Looking forward to further instalments.  :clap:

Jerry

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #21 on: March 18, 2009, 06:14:02 AM »

If any visitors to me have the same sort of setup and would like this backplate and bits for their RT, remind me and it will be yours. I have no further use for it.

Yes please John I think I could use it on my RT.
 :thumbup:

Cheers
 :wave:
Stew



A little bit of clearance never got in the road
 :wave:

Location:- Crewe Cheshire

bogstandard

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #22 on: March 18, 2009, 06:31:17 AM »
It's yours Stew. Just remind me next time you are over.

John

Offline Bernd

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #23 on: March 18, 2009, 12:30:09 PM »
John,

I figgured you did it in the RT table. I just thought a newbie would wonder how you did the jaws.

Just tring to keep you honest.  :lol:  :lol:

Regards,
Bernd
Route of the Black Diamonds

ja2on

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Re: Making a flywheel
« Reply #24 on: March 18, 2009, 06:13:25 PM »
Fascinating stuff  :thumbup: