Hi Guys, I'm new to the forum and new to machining. I've just ordered a Smithy 1324 Industrial Max plus a bunch of goodies. I hope I've made the right choice, time will tell I guess. I don't have any big projects planned so I expect (hoping) to get good life from my 1324. It is due to arrive in early October and will share space in the garage with my Miller TIG and MIG welders plus a fairly extensive selection of wood working tools. My main hobby is boating so it seems everything I make is related to this, and I'm hoping to interact with other creative boaters (my wife says compulsive modifiers). I try to work mostly with aluminum as it's marine friendly and easy to work.
This seems to be a fairly quiet site but I'm hopefull some of you guys will come on with advice as I stumble through set up and my first projects. I've read through the 3-1 posts and I like the tone of the forum, not at all like some of the boating forums I've seen.
My first project after set up and trials is going to be an engine driven reverse osmosis water maker using off the shelf components with all mounting hardware built by me using my Smithy and Miller tools.
New Member
Moderator: Harold_V
-
RetroWoody
- Posts: 29
- Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2012 8:17 pm
- Location: Near Omaha, Nebraska
Re: New Member
Welcome, Dave!
I was new a couple of months ago and also noted the quiet nature of the board. However, calm waters run deep and you will find a very knowledgeable group of folks here. I got great advice and help when I needed to troubleshoot my machine and replace bearings. I have been making parts and tools since and having alot of fun.
BTW, where do you get plans for that RO machine? I have some experience with industrial scale RO units, but I would like to make one myself.
I was new a couple of months ago and also noted the quiet nature of the board. However, calm waters run deep and you will find a very knowledgeable group of folks here. I got great advice and help when I needed to troubleshoot my machine and replace bearings. I have been making parts and tools since and having alot of fun.
BTW, where do you get plans for that RO machine? I have some experience with industrial scale RO units, but I would like to make one myself.
Re: New Member
"BTW, where do you get plans for that RO machine? I have some experience with industrial scale RO units, but I would like to make one myself."
I got the idea from a sailboat forum, one of the members sourced out all the parts and put it together, then made quite a nice and very detailed diagram and step by step instruction including where the parts could be purchased. I've got some ideas of my own but basically an RO system is a pretty simple concept. But even a cheap production unit is $12,000 or more. I can put one together for under $3,000 (not including my tool purchase), maybe not as fancy, but clean desalinated water just the same. Follow the below link to find the diagram.
http://www.westward-ii.com/PDF's/How%20 ... rmaker.pdf
I got the idea from a sailboat forum, one of the members sourced out all the parts and put it together, then made quite a nice and very detailed diagram and step by step instruction including where the parts could be purchased. I've got some ideas of my own but basically an RO system is a pretty simple concept. But even a cheap production unit is $12,000 or more. I can put one together for under $3,000 (not including my tool purchase), maybe not as fancy, but clean desalinated water just the same. Follow the below link to find the diagram.
http://www.westward-ii.com/PDF's/How%20 ... rmaker.pdf
Dave
Re: New Member
Welcome to the forum!
I frequently use my machine to fabricate parts for old outboards. In fact, this morning I fabricated a cogged belt drive to shrink-fit on a flywheel as part of retrofitting a generator to an old Evinrude, all out of aluminium. I also have made a wide variety of SS parts -- mostly 303 and 416 as I play in fresh water, but some 316 where corrosion is a prime concern (such as your desalinator). 316 is a bit trickier to machine though.
Your woodworking experience will serve you well, but there are some significant differences too. Rotational speeds and feed rates tend to be more of an issue when cutting metal. Tooling will dull much quicker. Coolants and lubricants come into play. But the biggest difference is precision. Woodworking tends to deal in fractions of an inch, metalworking deals in thousandths or even tens of thousandths of an inch. Wood warps when you cut it (so do many metals, just not quite as severely) but metal heats and expands when you cut it meaning precision work requires a cooling down period between roughing out and taking the final finishing cuts to dimension.
There's lots to learn and expect a significant period of practice to be necessary before attaining any sort of repeatable results. Don't limit yourself to this 3-in-1 forum -- it's a good place to learn about the specific idiosyncracies of 3-in-1 machines, but spend time in the General Discussion forum to learn about machining in general. The principles are all the same whether you have a 3-in-1 or separate lathe and mill. The single biggest difference is the need to group your tasks, so that you can fabricate as much as possible in one mode before changing over to the other because you don't have the luxury of simply moving the part from the lathe to the mill or vice-versa for intermediate steps. If you don't plan your work well, you will spend significantly more time switching from lathe mode to mill mode and back again.
I frequently use my machine to fabricate parts for old outboards. In fact, this morning I fabricated a cogged belt drive to shrink-fit on a flywheel as part of retrofitting a generator to an old Evinrude, all out of aluminium. I also have made a wide variety of SS parts -- mostly 303 and 416 as I play in fresh water, but some 316 where corrosion is a prime concern (such as your desalinator). 316 is a bit trickier to machine though.
Your woodworking experience will serve you well, but there are some significant differences too. Rotational speeds and feed rates tend to be more of an issue when cutting metal. Tooling will dull much quicker. Coolants and lubricants come into play. But the biggest difference is precision. Woodworking tends to deal in fractions of an inch, metalworking deals in thousandths or even tens of thousandths of an inch. Wood warps when you cut it (so do many metals, just not quite as severely) but metal heats and expands when you cut it meaning precision work requires a cooling down period between roughing out and taking the final finishing cuts to dimension.
There's lots to learn and expect a significant period of practice to be necessary before attaining any sort of repeatable results. Don't limit yourself to this 3-in-1 forum -- it's a good place to learn about the specific idiosyncracies of 3-in-1 machines, but spend time in the General Discussion forum to learn about machining in general. The principles are all the same whether you have a 3-in-1 or separate lathe and mill. The single biggest difference is the need to group your tasks, so that you can fabricate as much as possible in one mode before changing over to the other because you don't have the luxury of simply moving the part from the lathe to the mill or vice-versa for intermediate steps. If you don't plan your work well, you will spend significantly more time switching from lathe mode to mill mode and back again.
Re: New Member
Thanks Torch, some pretty good points. The heat expansion is one I hadn't thought of but will definatly be keeping that in mind when I get started. I'm still buying goodies and anxiously waiting for my machine to arrive.
Dave