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Welcome to Westwood Metalworks, What is he building in there?

If you guessed chicken roost you win a dozen eggs.

Paint hardened up enough that when the wife said she wanted to go out for AYCE Sushi tonight I knew I had about 45 minutes till she was shoes on at the door so I went for the install. Got it done, am posting this, and she's still in the shower.....
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Still need to make a ladder up there, but I'm sure they'll figure it out in the meantime. Should be lots of room for them to all find a spot now. They were all very curious about what I was doing in there though.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
That's what sold me on these ones. I was very close to pulling the trigger on some 5" cast iron ones, but they only had 800lb with needle bearings. Most likely would have been fine too, but I haven't finished designing the carriage yet, and knowing the way I build things, It'll be pretty chunky. These will roll smoother than the cast ones too I imagine.

If I was designing a cradle to support half a tractor I would incorporate a "jack stand" into it. Maybe have 1/2" clearance on either side of the wheels to the floor so the most it could drop would be that if a bearing failed.
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Me too. My big tractor is 5 tons or so half a tractor is say 3tons. Over 4 wheels is well under a ton each.

I assume their rating is conservative. So likely well within their operating range with careful attention to balance and very low accelerations.

My experience with Jack Stands isn't good. They work fine with static loads under their rating but if something decides to move, you better not be in the neighbourhood!
 
Dan Dubeau said:
That's what sold me on these ones. I was very close to pulling the trigger on some 5" cast iron ones, but they only had 800lb with needle bearings. Most likely would have been fine too, but I haven't finished designing the carriage yet, and knowing the way I build things, It'll be pretty chunky. These will roll smoother than the cast ones too I imagine.

If I was designing a cradle to support half a tractor I would incorporate a "jack stand" into it. Maybe have 1/2" clearance on either side of the wheels to the floor so the most it could drop would be that if a bearing failed.
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How far are you in East GTA ?
I get into Steeles Ave and Keele St every few weeks.
 
Susquatch said:
Me too. My big tractor is 5 tons or so half a tractor is say 3tons. Over 4 wheels is well under a ton each.

I assume their rating is conservative. So likely well within their operating range with careful attention to balance and very low accelerations.

My experience with Jack Stands isn't good. They work fine with static loads under their rating but if something decides to move, you better not be in the neighbourhood!
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I didn't mean jack stands in the traditional sense, but incorporating suitable material into the design of the cradle so that there is just enough clearance to the ground to move, but if the wheels pack it in, the cradle would only drop that clearance distance and nothing more. Function "like" a jack stand, but built in, and unobtrusive.

I've never been a big fan of wrenching on a car on jack stands. sometimes unavoidable, but makes me uneasy, and I double and triple check the setup.
 
Dan Dubeau said:
I've never been a big fan of wrenching on a car on jack stands. sometimes unavoidable, but makes me uneasy, and I double and triple check the setup.
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I hear you.

Shit also just happens too. Always good to try to think about what else could happen. Just recently had a boat trailer come off the truck hitch while I was under it. Didn't think of that possibility. Holy Crap....... Close call. Prolly my 42nd life.
 
Grew up in Newcastle, moved Downtown T.O. for about 4 years, then moved out here to the country in Kendal in 2010. Wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
 
Had a chance to score some points with the Wife today. A few of her yarn vending racks took a beating in the trailer after the last show and spilled their guts. Good thing I have a spot welder....Straightened them out, and welded up a few that had separated.

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While she was in the trailer cleaning up the yarnsplosion I had an idea and came up with these simple hooks that attach to the top of the bin racks that can carry the gridwall. We're always trying to come up with more efficient ways to setup and teardown shows. One of the biggest hurdles right now is the gridwall she lines her booth with. It's a PITA to carry. We don't have room for a big enough dolly for it, and some venues might have one, maybe two that are suitable and there's a long line up for them. She has 6 racks, and 14 gridwall sections, so we can now very easily just hook a couple on the back of the racks, and get moving quickly without waiting. Load in/out is always a complete zoo at these things, so the quicker we're in and out the better. Everything else is now on wheels (a common theme with me :) )

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They're just rough hammer bent in a vise, and I only made 2 to see if they would work, but am going to make more (with some changes) for the rest of the racks tomorrow. I'm also debating welding those frames up solid. They're not made to take the abuse they do bouncing around in the trailer all over the place.

Just thinking back to some of the shows in the past couple years how much of a pain it was getting the gridwall in makes me kind of pissed I didn't think of this earlier.......Almost looking forward to the next show now.....
 
Dan Dubeau said:
Had a chance to score some points with the Wife today. A few of her yarn vending racks took a beating in the trailer after the last show and spilled their guts. Good thing I have a spot welder....Straightened them out, and welded up a few that had separated.

View attachment 51386

While she was in the trailer cleaning up the yarnsplosion I had an idea and came up with these simple hooks that attach to the top of the bin racks that can carry the gridwall. We're always trying to come up with more efficient ways to setup and teardown shows. One of the biggest hurdles right now is the gridwall she lines her booth with. It's a PITA to carry. We don't have room for a big enough dolly for it, and some venues might have one, maybe two that are suitable and there's a long line up for them. She has 6 racks, and 14 gridwall sections, so we can now very easily just hook a couple on the back of the racks, and get moving quickly without waiting. Load in/out is always a complete zoo at these things, so the quicker we're in and out the better. Everything else is now on wheels (a common theme with me :) )

View attachment 51387
View attachment 51388

They're just rough hammer bent in a vise, and I only made 2 to see if they would work, but am going to make more (with some changes) for the rest of the racks tomorrow. I'm also debating welding those frames up solid. They're not made to take the abuse they do bouncing around in the trailer all over the place.

Just thinking back to some of the shows in the past couple years how much of a pain it was getting the gridwall in makes me kind of pissed I didn't think of this earlier.......Almost looking forward to the next show now.....
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I am sure that you will devise a BETTER arrangement as time passes.
Continuous Improvement can be applied everywhere !!
 
Not much time to build stuff lately. It's that time of year when the temperature drops, and it makes doing outdoor projects the most enjoyable. I've been busy doing some trail maintenance and tree work the past couple weeks, in between helping a friend dig a few ponds, and moving a few tons of rocks around.....by hand....fun stuff.... Anyway, the Wife mentioned tonight that she'd like a "beer cart" (her words, like at the beer store) type thing to move her totes in and out of venues for her yarn shows. I had a quick look around and figured I could find one hiding in some material I had laying around relatively quickly.

I had these plywood scraps leftover, some old casters from a toolbox, and enough 1.5"x1/8" angle to make this little guy. Simple design as I went with what I had. No time to paint it, or make it nice, she needs it tomorrow. I'll spiff it up when she gets back. She took it for a spin on the front porch and loved it. She said "I still can't believe you can just make something like that in there" which I think is code for, "you should buy more tools" ;). You gotta take the time to do projects like this for them every once in a while to stay in the good books......
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It was fun to build something again, it's been a while.....Even if it was a simple cart. Hoping I only have another week or so of tree/trail work to do and then I can get back to the carriage uprights for the sawmill. Then I can work on the saw head in the shop over the winter. I have trees I want to mill come spring, so that's my deadline......(I'm typing it out here to hold myself somewhat accountable for it lol)
 
Knock on wood, it would appear that I am done lighting money on fire with my Tormach...... for now.....Long story short, Back in July my X axis stepper shit the bed. I ended up buying a set of steppers from a guy on market place that had upgraded to servos. I bench tested the motor and everything worked great. When hooking up the new motor after running the wires through the Tormach conduit I ended up shorting it out because one of the wires got pushed back inside the end bell and got caught on the shaft tearing it up. In hindsight, I "should" have caught it, but it's not something I honestly thought to look for. Good thing I bought 3.....I could have swore I typed out a reply about it in that thread? but guess I was too pissed off at myself to do so. Maybe I didn't hit send. Oh well....

I opened up the driver and had a quick poke around hoping for something obvious and spotted a blown fuse. Not seeing anything else visually fried, but lacking the equipment and testing knowledge to dive further I ordered some from ali and waited for what seemed like forever. After it finally got here 2 weeks ago I soldered it in, and hoped that the fuse was all that was wrong. Still dead, It must have blown something else.
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Dejected, but seemingly made of money at this point, I broke down and ordered a new one from Tormach after weighing my options of used ones from ebay, or trying to get a cheaper generic leadshine one to work with some modifications. We were away on a working vacation to PEI last week when it arrived, and tonight was my first chance to get back to this after getting back late monday night after a 16.5 hour drive. I was pretty damn happy to see that Green light again :D
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My original conduit was split in a few places, and while I did initially fix it jankily after getting the new motor so I could get it up and running quick for a job at the time (which I ended up having to scramble to find someone else to cut for me after blowing the driver), I decided I should come up with something better now that I had some downtime. I wasn't a fan of Tormach's choice of materials here, which is why I didn't just order a replacement with the driver. I'm still on the fence about my solution too. Not sure it's a good one yet, but it's a pretty cheap/cost effective one for now, and I think it'll work just fine......Water tight, flexible......let me know your opinions. Good or bad. I might stick a stainless braid over it for abrasion resistance, or at least a strain releif, but will test it out for a while and keep an eye on how it's holding up. I don't expect a super long life if I was running this every day.

The motor end is a 1/4" npt push to connect for 1/2" tube. The column end is an m18 ( I think?). I made an adaptor out of a pg-11 plastic gland nut cutoff and tapped internally for 1/4" nptf. I had to shorten the motor end so as not to short out against the windings again (fool me once....:D) and bored them out bigger to pass the wires through. No pics taken of that, as to be 100% honest, I'm pretty emotionally done with this "project/adventure" right now.....
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I was originally going to run the motor wires into a waterproof splice box fastened to the side of the motor and from there run cabtire into the control panel, but changed my mind after the boxes arrived and went with this. More money spent......More time wasted......
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I also had to lengthen the wires from the stepper about 14" to reach the driver (one reason I was leaning towards the splice box), but when I plugged everything back in, and flipped the switch everything came back to life as it should. Finally. Ran it through a couple of old programs and it's all good and everything appears fine again. The conduit works fine at all extremes of travel.

Tomorrow I have the entire day to myself to clean it up and put all back together, get the coolant tank cleaned up with a fresh batch mixed up, and hopefully. Hopefully, make some chips finally. See if I actually remember how to run one of these things, it's been a while.....
 
Here's a carnage pic of the motor I fried for those interested. I only pulled the end cap, not the rotor as I've read steppers are useless once that's done and the magnetism is lost. Although this is useless as it sits anyway, I may try to fix this if possible, but am hesitant to hook it up to test as it's already cost me a driver.....Most likely just a shelf decoration at this point. Any opinions?
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I'll take a pic of the original motor I fried too, as well as the way Tormach terminates the conduit in the end cap.
 
Marketplace strikes again.... Just picked up this hydraulic lift table this morning. Was kind of hoping the lifting stage was a bit bigger, but It's too small for what I was hoping to use it for (small garden tractor forklift). Still, the rest of the bits will get harvested for other projects
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Something I never thought, but our security cams picked up the unloading. I had a good chuckle knowing the Wife will get this notification, and I've been waiting for the text about it ever since lol.


I will have to remember to disarm them before pulling in the driveway if I ever want to sneak anything in under the radar.
 
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Dan Dubeau said:
Marketplace strikes again.... Just picked up this hydraulic lift table this morning. Was kind of hoping the lifting stage was a bit bigger, but It's too small for what I was hoping to use it for (small garden tractor forklift). Still, the rest of the bits will get harvested for other projects
View attachment 52626
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Something I never thought, but our security cams picked up the unloading. I had a good chuckle knowing the Wife will get this notification, and I've been waiting for the text about it ever since lol.


I will have to remember to disarm them before pulling in the driveway if I ever want to sneak anything in under the radar.
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You know I’ve never even considered that happening.
 
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