Treadle Finger Engine

[b.lindsey]

That's looking great so far Tom. But really now....70 pages of reading vs. the super bowl?? I think we know which will win that battle. If your students are anything like mine they have the smarts and the energy, but still lack the discipline and passion all too often. I look forward to seeing more of their progress though and would like to talk some offline about your CNC program as we are rapidly moving in that direction here and have some decisions to make.

Keep up the good work!!

Bill

 

[Lamachina58]

The students have been making a lot of progress and you may realize that as a CNC project we will do things a little different than you might at home but I encourage thinking for themselves and even allow treading down the wrong path in the name of "teachable moments" as they say in education!

Milling the flywheel after blanking it out on the lathe...will it run true?

Milling the crankarm with plenty of waste.

Print markups. These are programmed manually in G code.

Milling the small pivot.

A small pivot finished.

And the Crash Cup goes too....
Mistakes go in the cup and occasionally further. Even my name is on it! Imagine how the cup got it's name? A student got all the way to turning out the inside and it caught severing the cup at the narrowest part of the stem! Needless to say it rang it's way all the way accross the shop floor. This is the students second and sucessful try.
The students want to build an engine of the crashed parts, to set the bar real low for next years crop.

 

[Lamachina58]

Much progress has been made and many engines are finishing up nicely!
This is one of several completed today. This has been a fun and challenging project that incorporated many machining processes. Thanks to Bogs for hints on the layout too, I know I need to make the lever a bit longer as the cycle is quite quick and hard to master. I touted it as a "stress reliever" but it has proven anything but.
Test fitting components

The first finished engine! These were completely programmed manually in G code and done entirely on cnc machinery.

And today we have another:

 

[flyingtractors1]

Nice job, Tom. I'm sure that your students (and you) are highly motivated to learn and having great fun. I've enjoyed reading the various "Finger Engine" threads on this forum and am still playing with the concept ranging from the very basic using only simple tools, as with my "Treadle Wheel Grinder" - posted in this forum, to my "Rail Road Trolley" employing a geared system , to my "Miniature Lathe" employing more elaborate systems and somewhat more sophisticated construction procedure (both also posted). I am still captivated by the endless possibilities and learning opportunities that such projects provide and continue to explore the concepts. I applaud you for providing exceptionally well designed measures to motivate students to want to learn and enjoy developing skills that will serve them forever. That is exactly how we instill that quality which not only draws youngsters to our hobby but ensures that we remain leaders in the global industry and markets. Thank you, and keep up the good job that you are doing. Ralph

 

[Blogwitch]

Tom,

Very nice clean lines you have achieved there. I'm sure they run as well as they look.

I am not an advocate of CNC for home shops, just my personal view, but if your efforts lead to new metal workers coming into industry, then I am all for it.

Well done


John

 

[Lamachina58]

Thanks Ralph and John! I like projects that become something if not useful then interesting.

John, I agree nothing about this couldn't be done manually but for a CNC curriculum I am proud to say we spend a full year in manual machining before going in to CNC and I require 30 hours of manual mill and 30 on lathes each semester while in CNC. I believe practice reinforces all of the skills manual machining teaches you as you apply them to CNC. In reality most of our graduates do end up on manual machines and need those skills. Boeing is a major employer and tells us to not change a thing. You would think they would stress CNC operator training but not so.

Also we often run a project like this in the manual class too, our cannon was a great one last year and one student ground every form tool with a Dremel and fiber cut off disk. You could not tell his from the CNC barells.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[steamboatmodel]

Thanks Ralph and John! I like projects that become something if not useful then interesting.

John, I agree nothing about this couldn't be done manually but for a CNC curriculum I am proud to say we spend a full year in manual machining before going in to CNC and I require 30 hours of manual mill and 30 on lathes each semester while in CNC. I believe practice reinforces all of the skills manual machining teaches you as you apply them to CNC. In reality most of our graduates do end up on manual machines and need those skills. Boeing is a major employer and tells us to not change a thing. You would think they would stress CNC operator training but not so.

Also we often run a project like this in the manual class too, our cannon was a great one last year and one student ground every form tool with a Dremel and fiber cut off disk. You could not tell his from the CNC barells.

Thanks for the advice!

I am glad to hear that someone is attempting to train CNC personal with manual and G code experience. When I took my CNC training we only had a six week manual machining course, and only one semester out of three emphasized manual G code programing. The last semester was on a program that I found out later was only used by the very largest companies, and while a great program I never ran across it once out in industry. I will you and your students well.
Regards,
Gerald
Retired CNC Technician.

 

[Lamachina58]

Thanks Gerald.
We are setting up to do a production run of 40 "engines" and I will post that too.
I will get our prints together and post them to HMEM's plans too.

 

[Rexer]

Heres one running.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK91xZSwdO4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK91xZSwdO4[/ame]

 

[Lamachina58]

The story continues with progress on our 40 engine build!

The students have programmed all of the components in G Code (manually) and made fixtures, soft jaws and all of the proceedures. They have been running the parts in our Haas cnc machines over the past two weeks as a production run.

Here is assembly

Another view of final run in and testing.

They all run beautifully!

 

[miner49r]

Good going Teach.

 

[Blogwitch]

Tom,

Very nicely done indeed.

Design, manufacture and assembly, quality control (hopefully) to working finished product.

Those youths have been shown the basics of mass production manufacturing, perfect.

You really do have a lot of bucks worth sitting on that bench, going by the number of people who have wanted to buy one of mine, at silly money.


John

 

[Lamachina58]

Thanks guys and John we all pondered the value last night when we locked up! These will be gifts to the Presidents, Dean's and adviser's of each of our state's Universities next week.
The materials and tooling were all donated by B&G Machine out of Philadelphia which really helped us a ton. I have four weeks left and wonder what we can do next!
By then we should be able to put a nice set of prints in the Downloads too.
Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions!

 

[Lamachina58]

The World's Fastest Thumb Engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fmD8p7DgE&feature=player_detailpage[/youtube]

 

[lazylathe]

Looks like all the students had a great time with this project! ;D

And all of them successful! Thm:

Andrew

 

[b.lindsey]

What a fine collection of engines!! Love the speed shot too :big:

Bill

 

[Lamachina58]

Here we go! Finished, tested and running!

Here is the class of 2012!

 

[flyingtractors1]

Nicely done. What a wonderful collection! And the gifting idea is PR Genius - a superb marketing and promotional move that will surely bring good will to your program and to your school. I am proud of you all. Four weeks left and wonder what to do next? A logical progression might be to challenge students to think of this beautifully done model as introductory and design the next generation engine - the improved model - next year's model - a variation - an adaptation - etc. You might even encourage them to develop a marketing or advertising program that would bring more positive recognition to the program through a media publication. You have built more than engines here. You have created an industry worthy of high recognition. Way to go. Ralph

 

[tony_m_baker]

Thank you. I have been scouring the internet for this.