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Machine Repair and Improvements
I work in both a machine shop and a makerspace, and one of the ways I work to improve the space is by repairing and maintaining machines as well as designing new tools to expand the capabilities of the machines.
New Finger for Sheetmetal Brake
For a senior design project I wanted to be able to bend two 90 degree angles into sheetmetal to make mounts for 8020. With typical fingers for sheetmetal brakes, you limited in bending two tight angles because of interference with the bender. I designed and milled a finger with a hole in it that allows multiple tight angles to be bent, which is beneficial for sheetmetal work.
Limiting Range of Bench Vice
Last fall the vice in our makerspace was having issues with unscrewing itself when opened to its max capacity. Once unscrewed, it was difficult to align and typically took two people to set up again. In order to prevent this from happening, I identified the maximum opening and marked the vice along the intersection of the fixed jaw and the sliding jaw. I removed the sliding jaw from the vice and drilled a hole tangent to the line using the drill press. I then put a bolt through the hole, preventing the sliding jaw from pulling further out and unthreading.
New Fingers for 3-in-1 Sheetmetal Machine
In the machine shop where I work I noticed that it was much harder to do sheetmetal work than in our campus makerspace. In large part this was because of the limitations of the bender. The sheetmetal brake in the makerspace has a wide variety of finger widths, making it easily adjustable to suit bending needs. I wanted to create a similar variety of widths for the 3-in-1 machine, which also gave me an opportunity to practice milling. I needed to match the angle and length of the new fingers to the old ones so that they could be combined if needed and result in an even bend. To do so I tilted the head of the mill and faced the surface with a four flute end mill. One finished, I trammed the mill to make sure the head was vertical within two thousandths of an inch.
Assembly of Prusa MK4 Kits
I've assembled 3 Prusa MK4 kits for the makerspace and machine shop at Tufts.
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