Author: Woody

Posted on

Kindling Cracker – a safer option

Better late than never

Four weeks ago I had an argument with my wood chopping axe. . While chopping wood against a wobbly tree stump, the stump wobbled and the axe came down on my thumb end. I didn’t feel it but it took off the tip of the bone and the severed end was only hanging on by a very thin section. My wife got me to the local A&E and a very nice paramedic cleaned and strapped things together. Since then life has been fairly miserable as I battle with buttons and being unable to do much in the workshop.

The wound is now less tender and the size of the bandage is getting less bulky. I have been warned it could take months to get any sense of feel in the tip. The problem I most stuggle with is trying to ‘unsee’ the flash back image of my thumb with its end hanging off.

In the course of recounting the incident to her golfing friends my wife was told of the Kindling Cracker. This is a wood chopping gizzmo invented in New Zealand by a young lady as a school science project . There are various YouTube videos of this device on their website. It reverses the chopping process and has the axe blade stationary with the wood being impalled in it and bashed with a club hammer. A protective ring keeps flesh away from the sharp bits.

As I have been out of action in the wood chopping department, we bought a Kindling Chopper and my wife has taken over wood chopping responsibilities. She can now split wood like a check shirted lumberjack. It is a simple but elegant design. I agree it is not as quick as chopping by hand but it needs much less effort and the chore can be delegated safely to other members of the family.

The only problem is I discovered it four weeks too late and I have got a few months left to dwell on my stupidity.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

I had a ChatGPT experience

In deep shock and still coming to terms with it.

I am currently working on a timing synchroniser for the local church clock. Being of that generation I had come up with a CMOS based phase detector with monostable timers etc. This logic looks at the relative timing of the clock strike activation and a DCF timecode reference clock. I prototyped the circuitry, proved it and made a PCB for it in Fusion. It works very well and the resulting output slows or speeds up the clock by adding or removing lead shot to the weight tray on the clock pendulum.

I got my ear bent for being so old school and not using an Arduino or similar but I was reluctant to stray from known and proven simple logic with RC time constants. In the end I caved in and out of curiosity thought it might be a good project to get my feet wet with ChatGPT.

It took a little while to find my way round the ChatGPT site and to get to the software support section. Once there I entered in simple language what I was trying to achieve. ‘It’ replied with its understanding of my needs and I agreed this was correct. I then asked for some code for an Arduino UNO.

Out popped 44 lines of Arduino code …. which worked. Oh my goodness, what a revelation. Think I need to have a cup of tea and biscuit to recover. Like Fusion and 3D printing, this is going to completely change my workflow and project practices.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

Fusion Sheet Metal model export as PDF

Not quite so obvious export route

The Sheet Metal module in Fusion allows you to create a 3D model of a folded sheet metal part and then ‘flatten’ the model to provide a net shape with fold lines. It is quite easy to use and impressive in the results you can achieve. The model can be adjusted for different metal types and their properties. The resulting flat net can then be exported as a DXF to send off to a laser or water cutting sub contractor.

The Fusion Sheet Metal module only allows the flat net data to be exported as a DXF file. This is not surprising as this is the most common data file request from sub contractors. That having been said I recently had a request for a PDF file which at first glance is not an export option in the Sheet Metal module. One solution was to use a web based DXF to PDF converter but this could be potentially unreliable in the conversion result.

A less obvious solution is once you have created the unfolded (flat) net, open the Drawing module in Fusion and use the From Design option.

This will load the unfolded net into a Fusion Drawing with the ability to be exported in PDF format. This is quite a useful export route to take as you can dimension and annotate the drawing in more detail than would be possible in the standard DXF format export from the Sheet Metal module.

The use of this Drawing module export route is going to be fairly rare but it is a useful option to know about and have up your sleeve.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

SINO SDS2MS DRO repair

It turned out to be an easy fix

The SINO SDS2MS is a relatively old DRO control and display box. The owner of the unit brought it to me for a ‘look at’ after it had suddenly died after many years of faithful service. The internals consisted of a power supply and a PCB motherboard. The feed from the power supply was a two wire connection and the PCB clearly stated this was 5V. I isolated the connection and measured the power supply in isolation which revealed the power supply was only delivering 3V. Feeding the motherboard direct from a bench power supply at 5V brought the unit back to life. Current drawn was around 1 Amp.

I had in stock a MakerHut 5V/2A power supply that would physically swap out for the original power supply. I have used a lot of the MakerHut PSUs and found them to be very reliable. So problem solved, unit back up and running.

Reading around about the SINO units, it seems the power supply is the most common mode of failure. Comparing the size of the old PSU and the replacement unit gives an indication of how technology has changed.

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Posted on

3D Printed Jigs to the rescue

How did we survive before 3D printing ?

I have been struggling with seeing where I am going on my Polly V live steam locomotive on the Club raised level track. It is the time of year where the cold weather quickly condenses the exhaust stream and you end up heading into a ‘white out’. This is not too bad if you trust the track but if there are ‘hokey cokey’ sections where your weight distribution is critical to remaining on the track it can be a bit unnerving and not good for your underwear.

I resolved to solve this before the New Year’s Day running session by making an exhaust diverter. I sketched this up in Fusion to use 32mm (1.25″) brass pipe forming a simple 120 degree Y shape. (The chimney bore down to the petticoat is 32mm).

The design was easy to model in Fusion but did require me to revisit the ‘plane on a path’ function. I first printed a 3D model of the diverter and this fitted nicely down the funnel. The next problem was going to be cutting the 30 degree angles on the end of the brass tubes. What was needed was some means of holding the tubes in the bandsaw so they could be flipped 180 degrees while making the 30 degree cuts and while also maintaining the protruding length. It struck me that I just needed a 32mm bore Stephenson Collet block with a reference edge – something not currently to hand nor in regular demand in my workshop. Then galloping over the horizon came my Qidi X Smart 3 demanding to provide one.

Back to Fusion and a few quick sketches gave me a model to hold the tube with a grub screw grip and with a reference placement lip on the front edge of the block. This worked a treat and I quickly had the three pieces of brass tube cut to length and mitred ready for assembly.

The preparation ended up being the easy part as I now had to hold all three pieces carefully in position while I braized them together. I reverted to three pieces of wooden rod gripped in each tube and the rod in turn fastened down onto my brazing hearth bricks. Crude but effective albeit potentially a fire risk.

The moral to the story is that in the past I would never have considered machining up a relatively large block of metal just to cut six mitres on some brass tubing. 3D printing has completely changed my approach to model engineering and the PLA recycle bin is now busier than the metal recycle bin (that used to contain not just swarf but also those ‘didn’t quite get it right’ rejected parts). It is not only this change but also the ability to get on with something else while the 3D printer creates your solution or path to a solution or just your ‘I wonder if that would work’ dreaming.

Result – I can now see where I am going as I chug round the raised level track and my laundry bill is much reduced. Here are some final images.

Just a closing thought while in Fusion mode – how about a more flexible version ?

Links to similar or related post are listed below : –

Proudly powered by WordPress
Verified by ExactMetrics