Lurching Back to Life...

Sorry for dropping off the radar like this.... Getting my first post-collage job had taken the wind out of my sails.  This will have two effects on my projects: One is that I will have much less time to work them (bad), but on the other hand, I have the money to buy parts. (good)

So, what's in the future?

My plans are as follows:

1. finish my test/practice board, designed to teach me the use of surface mount LEDs, and the use of  led drivers. This is in preparation for...
 2. A full blown LED matrix clock. With programmable text entry, perhaps even animation if I have the time to program it in.
3. Get my balancing robot to working. In addition, put some navigation capability in if I can.... (I signed up for an Udacity course... didn't have time to finish it, but the information it has is valuable for this project.)

In addition, I have some project which are (currently) on the back burner:

  - Build a nice set of speakers, along with an acoustic suspension sub-woofer.
  - Build a rapid prototyping machine. The capacity to build parts to order is be valuable for robotics etc.
 - If and when I can find the space to put one, acquire and learn how to use a bench-top CNC mill, one that is capable of a good degree of accuracy and repeatability. (While machining aluminum and steel)

T-Box Legs: The Final Push

Now that the castors are ready for final mounting, there is one thing left: mounting the small frame to the T-Box Proper. In order to achive this, the following tasks have to be competed: Wax the bottom of the T-Box, Position and clamp the small frame in place, drill all holes, clear all holes of sawdust, and finally, glue & screw the small frame to the T-Box.

First up: Waxing the T-Box Bottom!

Approximate fitting of the small frame.

Ordinary Paste wax is used to finish the T-Box Bottom....

Waxing involves a fair amount of eblow grease, which I tired of very quickly! In desperation, I hauled out an old buffing pad, and attached it to a drill. The result was a nice finish, with less time and effort.

...Buffing tools are used to finish to a nice gloss!

Now the bottom side has gotten the last waxing it's gonna get for a decade or so.... time to drill holes for the small frame attachment.

Small frame aligned and clamped in place.

Inital hole location are marked.

The tool in the previous picture is a device I call a "Port-o-line". Reasonable effective in drilling perpendicular holes....

Dowel hole drilled, with test-fitted dowels.

Once the dowel hole were drilled, in inserted the dowels, so the frame would remain aligned during the drilling of all subsequent holes.

Assembly Compete!

Once the hole were drilled, the frame was removed, and all dowel hole were cleaned of sawdust. The frame was then finally assembled on to the T-Box, including glue for the dowels. All that's left is to assemble on the castors, and place the table in service.

Final mounting of the castors.

Table in service.

This was a fairly involved project, but resulted in a vast improvement in usability. The table can now be easily moved, cleaned under, and leveled. I look forward to using this setup for some time to come....

T-Box Legs: Some Steel Work, and Final Pre-Fit of the Castors.

This post covers the fitting of the castors, and the final metal working. First up is the drilling of the mounting holes for the castors...

Castors are fitted, ready for steel work.

Did not take too many pictures of the drilling and filing of the steel plate. The end result is shown below however.

Final castor pre-fit.

The finished steel plate, removed so the leg structure can be finished.

The last T-Box post will cover the mounting of the small frame to the T-box proper, final assembly, and show the T-Box leg structure in service.

T-Box Legs: Castor Pad Work

Now that the castor pads have been glued on, the need to be reinforced in order to withstand the stress they will experience. The first reinforcement is to add a number of dowels, which greatly increases resistance to shear (sideways) forces.

Dowels glued in place.

The second method of reinforcement is steel plates positioned between the castor and the castor pad. This prevents the wood in the pad from getting damaged if the castor is to hit something while the T-Box is getting moved. (A stress-spreader)

Initial cuts on the steel plates are complete - 8 total.

Now the steel is complete, time to flip the leg structure over, and add some further reinforcements to the castor pads - to resist bending forces.

Before the reinforcements have been installed.

With these reinforcements... will be very difficult to break this castor pad off.

The T-Box leg structure is almost complete... just needs final work on the steel, final fitting of the castors, and finish on main leg structure. Next post will cover the final fitting of the castors, and the application of finish.

T-Box Legs: Castor Pads and More Reinforcement

Now the castor pads will be attached, and the reinforcment block for the bottom shelf will be fabricated and installed.

Castor Pads - with glue drying.

Once the glue is dry, a number of reinforcements will be installed. This is a high-stress part, so just gluing the pads on will not provide the needed strength.

Reinforcement Blocks - milled to size.

Corners rounded over - ready for installation.

Tools used to install the reinforcement blocks.

First Batch drying.

The rest of the block were glued in place later. The next post will cover the reinforcement of the castor pads, and the drilling of the same for the bolts. The project is almost complete - there are metal doublers to fabricate, and the whole project needs a coat of linseed oil.

T-Box Legs: Small Frame and Castor Pads

First order of business is to get the retaining block mounted, and reinforced with dowels. Then I will glue and mill the castor pads.

Retaining block are glued in place...

...and the glue bond is reinforced with dowels.

Set up to cut the rabbits for the castor pads...

Rabbits cut, ready for gluing.

I am gluing the two pieces of wood together, because for a high stress point, a butt joint does not have the required strength. The castor pads will be milled from this combined piece of wood.

Wood is drying....

...and milled to size, will all edges rounded over.

Now that the retaining blocks are dry, time to apply linseed oil. The finish is used to preserve the wood, and discourage insects.

Small frame is done, with the finish drying.

Now we need to mount the castor pads, and add more reinforcing blocks to the bottom side...

T-Box Legs: Dowels and Reinforcing Blocks

Now, gussets are in... time to put in some reinforcing blocks to strengthen the structure. The plywood was originally attached only by a shallow rabbit, and the blocks increase the amount of glue area holding the plywood in place.

Reinforcing block for the gusset corner.

Blocks used for the gusset sides.

Now since the gussets are drying... time to focus on the small frame... which means installing some reinforcing dowels in the corners. The locations were marked using the Incra rule (the bit of red and silver metal) and a mechanical pencil. Once the hole centers were located, they were center puched with an awl. The hole were drilled using and ancient Porta-line.

Tools used for marking and drilling the corner holes.

Corner drilled for dowels.

Dowels, ready for installation.

Installed.

Next up is the installation of the retaining blocks, and the mounting platforms for the castors.

T-Box Legs: A shelf and some gussets.

This post covers the installation of the bottom shelf, and the upper gussets.

The first part of the process, where the shelf is trimmed to size is not shown. The trimming was done with a router fitted with a spiral cutting bit. The end result looks quite neat.

Bottom shelf, fitted and ready for final installation.

Clamped in place, and drying.

Future gussets.

Used a sled to cut at a 45 degree angle...

...and routed out the corners.

Rounded over the edge as the last fabrication step.

Drying in place, bottom view.

Drying in place, top view.

The T-Box legs are almost complete... just need a few bits here and there to strengthen the table in critical spots, especially around the caster mounting points.

T-Box Legs: Some Assembly Required.....

Not many pictures on this one. When glue is involved, the camera does not get picked up until the assembly and alignment is complete. This post covers the assembly of both frames.....

Smaller frame drying.

Small frame, and end pieces for the large frame, ready for the next step.

This went together in a hurry.

A corner reinforcment block...

....along with its opposite on the other side.

Mostly waiting for glue to do its thing here. Next up is the main shelf, and upper gussets.

T-Box Legs: Final Milling on the Large Pieces

The two main operations left are: Cutting the rabbits for the shelves, and milling the mortises in the long run horizontals. There are still some minor things left, however the main task after this step is assembly.

Upper horizontals get a 1/2" rabbit.

Lower horizontals are milled with a 3/4" rabbit.

Lower long horizontals are ready for installation.

Upper long horizontals ready for installation.

While the long horizontals were getting worked on, the other pieces were drying...

Second set of legs is setting up nicely.

Assembly is started, the project should be done fairly rapidly at this point.