Day 3

Dad looks much better today. Think he is getting used to the tubes in his throat & nose. It broke our heart to see him strapped down to the bed. Bad night for him and all of us yesterday. Yesterday was also the first time I broke down after almost 30 years. It just came while I was driving home.

He is very worried about the operation later. That will be his third in three consecutive days. He is also worried about granny. Communication was done via marker & paper. The last instruction to my brother surprised us; he asked if my brother has fulfilled the order for their client, remembering even
the address. This man is sharp!

I'm praying for His Shalom on him, that he rest in His peace while all required are done on him.

We are now waiting for the doctor to tell us what time will the operation starts. She'll brief us at 4pm.

There is nothing we can do now but pray and leave dad in God's hands.

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God Heals

I am declaring that my dad is healthy and whole. Whatever that is causing the infection is gone in Jesus' name. No pain, no suffering, no diseases can stand in the way of my mighty God!!! His peace is on him that he has no fear. By His strips, he is healed! At this very instance.

GOD IS GOOD!!! ALL THE TIME!!!


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Magazines on Machining

I requested for trial copy of 2 magazines on machining from here: http://www.homeshopmachinist.net/home?noredirect=true&noredirect=true after seeing the recommendation on Sherline group. Not that resources and information are not available online, but the feel of holding and reading from a magazine is really nice.

The magazines were in the letterbox right on time; for the company trip the next 2 days. I flipped through the pages briefly and saw an article on making a stop for Sherline lathe. Cool... Looks like I'll be a subscriber soon.

The mags:






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Ikea Lamp Holder

Finally had the chance to fix it ip to the lathe board just before going work.


The hole to the left was what I used. Part of the swivel of the lamp was blocked by the board such that the lamp cannot be held at a certain position. The lamp holder solved that problem.


Got to thank TK for printing this holder. Almost 2 hrs of preparation & printing. It will take me longer than that to make this in aluminum.

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3D Printing of Ikea Lamp Stand

I have been reading on 3D printing briefly and got interested in the possibilities it opens up in a home shop environment. From my little understand of how this works, this an additive method of create parts (my metal working machines are subtractive as in they remove materials to form the required geometries). Plastic filaments are melted and squeezed out of a nozzle to form parts layer by later. The structure is basically a 3-axis stage that controls the positioning of the nozzle. Frankly, that's all I know or can understand.

I bumped into a gentleman, Mr TK Ng, at Mike's shop. He was buying the Sherline lathe and mill when I met him. We chatted and learnt that he owns the Makerbot's Thing-O-matic 3D printer. Cool!!!

This was what he printed:


This is some kind of a space fighter from some movies.

I'm interested to get a unit of the printer myself upon considering what can be printed within it's 120mm x 120mm x 10mm stage. Not an easy decision as I've also committed to purchase the Proxxon PD400.

To see the usability of the parts a 3D printer produces, I ask TK if he can help print a lamp stand for the Ikea lamp I have. He kindly agreed. This is the STL file I sent him:


The part measures 49mm x 49mm and has a height of about 50mm.

Very quickly, he sent me these:


Another view:


From the bottom:


From the side, you can see the angled wall also printed per the STL:


What amazed me is the capturing of even the fillets.

TK said that the print job took him about an hour and a half. Setting up took another 15 minutes (generate GCode, calibration etc).

I'll try to pick up the printed part from him and will post a pix of it in use.

Now, the Proxxon lathe has a lead time of 12 weeks while the 3D printer about 5 weeks. Maybe I should get one to play with and start making some useful household stuff to justify it's present in my shop... lol... Mike, when you're ready...

I would like to thank TK for the print. Will be troubling you when one magically appear in my shop.

I need more space...

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Setting the mill on it's new base

Back home, I prepare the board for the mill. Six round rubber bumpers were attached to the backside of the board to dampen vibration and prevent the mill moving around during cut.


The mill was placed on the board to have the hole locations punched out.


Then I started to screw up... My laziness got me to just drill the screws in using the punch marks as guides. After the 2 front screws went in, I saw that the screws pushed the alignment out. While trying to remove the screws to start over, one of them stripped.


I tried using the screw extractor with a hand drill - didn't work. Never did get that to work before anyway. I was thinking, if I can drill off the head from the shank of the screw with a slightly bigger drill than the shank, I should be able to remove the screw and not damage the mill base. I carefully measured the shank of the screw. Slightly more than 4mm. Took a 4.5mm drill and drill away. Light sewing oil was used to keep the heat down. In less than a minute, the head came off. Hahaha! It works!


This was what's left on the board:


The threaded shank was rather stubborn. It just refused to come out. So out came my brand new Proxxon IB/E with it's cutting disc. The idea was to cut a slot for the screw driver to be used.


The cutting disc stood the cut but didn't withstand the slight knock on the mill base...


Now I'm able to carefully remove the screw shank without major damage to the board.

I'll use the other side of the board to start over. Small holes will be drilled this time to guide the screws. I'll also be drilling 2 additional holes for the bolts holding the column to the base so that I don't have to remove the base from the board for future adjustments.

More pics in the next instalment. Got to get ready for church.

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A Trip down Kelantan Lane

The title sounds like a trip down memory lane...

Ruth and I made a trip down to Ban Heng Long to get some wooden boards to replace the boards for mounting the mill and lathe. It's always fun to have Ruth along with me while I shop at Kelantan Lane.

While there, we saw this:


Ruth insisted that I take a pix of the "dead squirrel". She is so funny. Wanted me to pick the dead rat... No way darling...

At Ban Heng Long, I ordered 2 pieces of plywood 18mm thick as they do not have hard wood of the sizes I want. The plywood boards are laminated on one side to keep oil and coolant off. Also bought for TK some MDF of various sizes.

The man at work cutting the board to size on a shop made saw table:


Interesting to see the guy using blocks of wood as guides. Adjustments of the distant to saw blade was done by stacking the wooden blocks.

These are the stuff I bought:


TK's MDF:


A trip to MacDonald's for fries and coke ended the outing with my little one.


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