Some of my students made a few dozen of these model Space Needles.They handed them out to people visiting the machine shop during a Sno-Isle Skills Center open house on Thursday, February 5.
Safety note: Removing metal chips by hand can be dangerous for some metals. This piece was made from soft aluminum. Many other metals, especially stainless steel, produce very tough, razer sharp chips that should never be touched by hand.
The machine making the model Space Needle is a Haas CNC Toolroom Lathe, model TL-1 owned by Everett Community College. The shop is a high school tech lab during the day and a community college tech lab in the evenings. (This arrangement is a good use of taxpayer dollars.)
Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center, Everett, WA, USA
Everett Community College, Everett, WA, USA
Duration : 0:4:17
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
it is fun. im …
it is fun. im getting an old Hendey lathe that the USGS was going to can, They found the lathe on a WWII navy destroyer ship. it was used to make cannon barrels, torpedoes, etc. pretty neat!
(response continued …
(response continued): Most of the visitors to our open house had never seen machining done before and never noticed the part deflection as you did. They went away totally impressed with the shop, and some have signed up for my next years class. My students do receive correct instruction, along with a few examples of when and how to get away with breaking some machining rules as long as safety is not compromised.
Best wishes always, Tom
Thanks for your two …
Thanks for your two comments Trevor. Your essment is completely correct.
I considered all that when setting it up, but there was little danger of failure, and there was no tolerance on any dimension as long as the part looked kind of like the Space Needle. If the lathe had a programmable tailstock, it could have been used for most of the operation, then retracted before finishing the needle and cutting off the part.
(my response to be continued)
the point bay be …
the point bay be machined as a second part of the program
the part is too far …
the part is too far out of the chuck youll see that the first cuts make the peice bend. a live center would help that
Thanks for your …
Thanks for your comment. Even after doing this for almost 40 years, the magic of seeing a recognizable object emerge from a piece of metal has never ended. It’s even more exciting to pass these skills on to high school and college students.
Thanks for your …
Thanks for your comment. Yes, I will post such a video when I get a chance.
(Unfortunately it will probably be a few weeks before I can get to it., but it will get done.)
wow this is good …
wow this is good with what your doing teaching these young people. wish i had an early headstart. could you post a vid of the control panel? im so used to seeing mori seiki and mazak controls.
if only i had those …
if only i had those tools at home……
seems fun to make things out of metal
I’d be happy to …
I’d be happy to send the program to you. Go to my channel home page “tomthemachinist” and see where it says “Connect with TomTheMachinist.” Click on “send message” and send me your email address.
It is a Haas …
It is a Haas controller. (Haas CNC lathes and mills are only available with the Haas control.)
What kind of …
What kind of controller?
can you distribute …
can you distribute this program? i am starting on a TL1 as well, and this is a cool program.