CNC Project

[Tom Slick]

A few of you might remember when I was soliciting ideas for a CNC project a few months ago...
I made this oscillating air motor in the CNC machining class last quarter. Most of it was made on a CNC Mill (VMC), the piston and spring retainer was made on a manual lathe. I made a few of them and ran out of plate so my working model has a Ipe base.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueHxFyyq0ls




It's double-acting like an old steam engine; pressure acts on both sides of the piston.



Valving is done by holes in the plate.

[Tom Slick]

Animation of it running http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6j9D17FrLw

Animation of it assembling http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_0OG...eature=channel

It was designed using SolidWorks. CNC code was written with MasterCam.

The aluminum on aluminum bearing surfaces are terrible but they work okay for display purposes. Besides that the aluminum was free.

[shoottx]

Very Cool

[Stytooner]

I agree. Very cool. Free material is always the best. I don't see much there that couldn't be done on a manual mill and lathe. CNC is great for hole placement and oddball shapes as well as mass production. Since you have the code now, you can make as many as you want until the free stock runs out.

That appears to be quite similar to steam locomotive drives. Not real familiar with any of the steam engines, but I have seen lots of types of small ones. Some works of art. Yours is definitely worthy as a display and bragging rights.

[Tom Slick]

Really everything but the boss on the back of the cyl block could have easily been done manually. It is cool to make round parts like the crank in the mill though.

The original design wasn't as square and blocky but I ran out of time in the class so it became much more simplified.

What makes the free material even more cool is it was donated by the Skunk Works. Its scrap from building F-22 and F-35 parts!

[crokett]

I like it a lot. Very very cool. Thanks for the anmiation - it helped it get straight in my head how it works.