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February 23, 2010
take your blog to work day: time-lapse footage!
by sven at 12:00 pm
I tell people I make puppet armatures. I show them photos and then they understand what I'm talking about.
But it's probably impossible for most to visualize the actual process of machining. So last week I decided to take some time-lapse footage of myself at work.
I was working on making pieces of 1/16" dia. rod into tiny hinge joints. Above you can see the raw stock I start with next to one of the finished parts.
The process for this particular part takes me 80 minutes to complete. For you, I've condensed that down to one minute.
Here's the process with the camera set up on the table beside me.
Since I was making several identical parts, I set the camera up again so it could give you an over the shoulder view, too.
(Some of you might recognize the music… Two compositions I did a few years ago: hatching and suave squirty.)
posted by sven | February 23, 2010 12:00 PM | comments (10) | categories: stopmo
Comments
Rats. I can't get these videos to work on my iMac (Safari 4.04, Snow Leopard). I can't even get them to work when I download them directly and try to play them in QuickTime Player.
Posted by: Mike at February 23, 2010 2:05 PM
Unbelievable!
Posted by: Shelley Noble at February 23, 2010 3:01 PM
OK, I think I've got the problem fixed. Thanks for saying something, Mike!
Posted by: sven at February 23, 2010 3:03 PM
Work great now! Thanks!
Posted by: Mike at February 23, 2010 3:13 PM
ohmigod those are awesome films. i also like the before/after comparison. i hope you forward the films to the hplhs!
Posted by: gl. at February 23, 2010 3:42 PM
also, i never realized how industrial those songs were until paired with the videos. almost metropolis-like!
Posted by: gl. at February 23, 2010 3:47 PM
Sweet! Great idea, thanks for posting.
Posted by: ubatuber at February 24, 2010 7:48 PM
Why do you start with a round bar? Would it not be easier to use a thin strip and just drill the two holes?
Posted by: Andy from Workshopshed at February 25, 2010 12:35 AM
Hi Andy! Very good question…
I've been wracking my brain for a way to answer it simply, and have failed so far. So I'll answer complexly instead.
1) The design of the limb that this segment fits in is essentially a hinged rod. So it's good to start off using rod.
2) This segment is essentially the tongue side of a tongue-and-groove hinge where no un-flattened rod remains. I already have a jig for making the tongue side of hinges. Not having to make an additional set of jigs is a big advantage.
3) The part needs to be .0180" thick, +/- maybe .0010". Raw stock of this size and tolerance cannot be bought off the shelf… So it's simply a given that I'm going to have to mill raw stock down to size.
4) The intuitive alternative to rod here is a flat sheet or a tiny strip of metal. But If I were to shave a flat sheet of metal down to size, I'd need to create a new set-up of jigs, risers, supports, etc. Very time consuming.
5) If I were to shave a piece of flat metal down to size, I'd need to shave both its face and its side down to size: two axes. Using a rod, you have to flip the part upside-down at one point… But still, only one axis needs shaving. The width is already the proper size.
6) A rod can be held inside of a precisely drilled hole using a screw. This makes rod-holding jigs somewhat simpler to create than jigs for holding rectangular stock. Drilling is just about always simpler than doing milling operations.
7) This part is so tiny, if you were to hold the raw stock directly in the milling vise, the cutters would have to get very close to the jaws. It's likely that any accident would damage the vise. With the rod-holding jigs, it's relatively easy to put the raw stock up a safe distance from the vise. (A "safe" distance being something like 1/8".)
Posted by: sven at February 27, 2010 2:53 PM
Sven, thanks for the detailed followup. The round jigs are a very good idea. I can see how thats the best way to go for these small parts. When I was turning some very small rods on the lathe, I left the ends at a larger size right until the last minute then sawed them off at the end.
Posted by: Andy from Workshopshed at February 28, 2010 1:42 AM