Woody's Workshop – Page 46 – Keeping the Grey Matter active

January 2, 2019December 1, 2021

Tormach Costing Sheet Update

Tormach changed their prices last year so I have updated the costing spreadsheet I created to reflect these changes. Note that the sheet now has the new M Series prices for the 770 and 1100.

Note that I believe I have interpreted their prices correctly but you can check this once you have placed a request for quotation and compare. Let me know if you spot any errors.

tomach mill costing 2019 Download

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January 1, 2019January 8, 2019

Fusion 360 Speeds and Feeds

It has been a quiet period leading up to Christmas and it has lead to some low level activity catching up on items on the ‘Things to Do’ list.

One of these was to make a graphical representation of what the Fusion 360 Feeds and Speeds dialogue box means and the calculations behind it. To be honest this tab in the Fusion CAM section used to frighten me but I have become more confident with it. The problem is I can’t remember what each box affects so here is a visual representation which might help others. Note that the dialogue changes between a ramp into the stock (such as when cutting a pocket) and a plunge into the stock (such as when drilling).

I hope that makes sense and I have got it right. It certainly helps me to understand what is going on and the calculations going on in the background.

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December 6, 2018December 6, 2018

tado° Update

The Tado system is now installed in France and it is working rather well. I have installed the wireless thermostat in the downstairs entrance and this now controls the boiler via a relay control box next to the boiler. The upstairs area now has its radstats set to less than half way open and we have also been able to turn the downstairs radiators down.

We now have a much more balanced temperature throughout the house and don’t go to bed freezing cold. Now the fabric of the building has got up to a uniform temperature the boiler seems to be firing less. Having the smartphone application for remote operation is an additional bonus. Very pleased with the result. Nice kit.

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November 22, 2018

tado° Radio Controlled Heating System

We have a problem in the house in France relating to the fact that we live on the upstairs floor and sleep on the ground floor. It works well in this configuration but has the disadvantage that if we have the wood burner on upstairs it trips the boiler thermostat which is also upstairs. This results in the boiler going off and we end up freezing cold downstairs at bedtime.

I have been pondering this for some time and finally arrived at a solution using the Tado components. This is a 868MHz mesh network of control products consisting of a radio controlled Thermostat, radio connected RadStats and a thing called an Extension Kit which replaces an existing timer/controller.

The thermostat in France is currently in the wrong position on the first floor but the unit is hard wired back to the boiler down in the cave (cellar) so it is difficult to elegantly move. The Extension Kit picks up the controller hard wiring as was and acts as a new controller for the boiler under radio command from the Thermostat. Not only does the Thermostat set the temperature but it also allows the water heating to be controlled. You can manually command on and off or use programmable profiles.

All the above components are brought together on a smartphone App that allows you to control the heating and water from anywhere. The system also has GPS geo fencing. This is really attractive as it means we can get it to bring the heating and water on as we come off the ferry. No more sitting with our overcoats shivering when we arrive in winter.

It is a well conceived set of kit. Pairing the items to talk with each other is straightforward but for some scenarios you need to get Tado to customise the software. This is done via the internet and can take up to 48 hours to complete. That aside once this is done it works very well. I have had it running on the bench with a couple of light bulbs on the water and heating outputs to simulate operation. Installation in France will be next week.

I have no connection in any way with Tado and I am sure there are similar products out there. I just like nice kit that is well conceived and does what it says on the tin.

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November 15, 2018January 1, 2019

Tooling Day

Each of my CNC mills has a home designed and produced tooling plate. Both have a 25mm pitch matrix of tapped mounting holes and a further submatrix of 3.7mm tooling pin holes. Why 3.7mm ? So I can turn down 4mm silver steel for the tooling pins to create a retaining shoulder.

My small CNC plate has M5 tapped holes and the Tormach 440 has M8 tapped holes. What struct me was that I has starting to create dual sets of hold down tooling, some with M5 and some with M8 mounting holes. Not a good idea. (Entertaining and therapeutic though it might be to have ‘tooling days’).

Clearly a mounting with M8 holes was not much use with tooling having M5 mounting holes but the other way round would work if I had M8 to M5 adaptors.

As a result I have spent the day creating adaptors which you could call male and female. Both are made from M8 hex head tensile screws with the female ones retaining the M8 head and the male ones utilising the cut off portion of thread. I had to undercut the thread ends behind the heads so the female adaptors would sit flush. Having undercut I then skimmed all the tops of the hex heads to be same depth.

All the turning was done with the ER25 collet chuck instead of the 3 jaw which is normally fitted to the Myford. The male adaptor versions were a pain to turn down to M5 diameter and had to be done incrementally as the M8 threaded end could not be heavily gripped in the collet.

The female versions are quite useful if a job is being run on the Tormach that needs suspending above the table so it can machined to full stock depth.

Nothing revolutionary or original but a day well spent.

A picture explains : –

M8 to M5 adaptors in place on the Tormach tooling plate

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