The Sherline Miniature Machinist's Newsletter
Number
3,
Featured Project:
Running a small business out of a
six-foot closet—Marvin Meit
Marvin's closet shop (L)
and a typical model steering wheel (R)
Marvin
Meit started out small. His entire machine shop is housed in a six-foot closet.
A cut-down door sitting atop a couple of shelves is his workbench, but don’t
let that fool you. Marvin does a lot of work in this small shop. He specializes
in parts for the prestigious auto kits produced by the Pocher company with his
company called Model
Motorcars, Ltd. The parts that come with the kits are nice,
but he makes even better ones—particularly the wooden steering wheels that
duplicate the construction of the originals. See project #9 in the Sherline Workshop
web page for more photos of how he does it and visit his web site to see other
parts he offers.
Upcoming events
The
next major show in the
New
Products:
CNC
upgrade kits (without computer) P/N 8765, 8770 and 8775
8770
kit with three stepper motors for the mill.
Virtually
any Sherline lathe or mill can be upgraded to CNC. Kits are available that
include the mount conversion kit, driver box, motors and a new computer with
software already loaded. However, for those of you who want to put
together a CNC system using a new Sherline machine and your own computer,
another way to do it is to order the CNC-ready version of a particular machine
and then add the other components. In order to make that easier (and to save
you a little money) we have put together several packages that include the
driver box with power supply, cables and Linux/EMC software on CD plus the
right number of stepper motors for your application. P/N 8765 comes with the
driver box and 2 stepper motors for use with a lathe, P/N 8770 comes with
3 stepper motors for use with a Mill, and P/N 8775 comes with 5 stepper motors*
for use with a shop package that includes both a lathe and a mill. You just
attach the stepper motors to the motor mounts on the machine, plug the motors
into the driver box and plug the parallel cable from the driver box to the
printer port on your computer. Install the included Linux/EMC software or
purchase a Windows® control program elsewhere like Mach3® and install it
and you are ready to enter the world of CNC.
*If
you want to upgrade the P/N 3700 manual 4th axis rotary table to
CNC, specify the P/N 8730 table with stepper motor mount and motor for an
additional $125.00 when you purchase the CNC-ready shop package.
Did you know?
• A new
navigation bar has been added to the top of the Sherline home page. You
can go directly to key sections of the web site by using the links on that bar
rather than searching through the main menu for them.
• Sherline
has installed a Google search box that allows you to search just the Sherline
web site. It works just like the universal web search except that it only finds
instances of your search words within the Sherline web site. That means if you
don’t know a part number or how to find a product, you just type in the name
and it will show you every page within the Sherline web site where that word or
words occur. The Google box is near the top of the opening page plus a “Search
this Site” link is in the navigation bar mentioned above. The site offers so
much information even we forget where some of it is sometimes, so this is a
great way to find what you want fast.
•
You can order 24 hours a day using your credit card at www.sherlinedirect.com.
The new site features an improved UPS shipping calculator that gives a much
more accurate shipping cost based on total weight.
Shop
Tip of the month:
Adding
a ringlight to your Sherline mill
A
ringlight provides smooth, even light all around the cutter on a mill.
Having
a good, clear view of what you are cutting makes the machining experience more
pleasant and reduces the chances for mistakes. Miniature mills have a headstock
and motor that are fairly close to the work and may
tend to leave shadows from standard overhead lighting. High powered lights on
flexible stands are better, but they tend to cast harsh shadows. The ideal solution
is a ring light that cast even light all around the cutter. Tip 50 on
Sherline’s web site includes two ways to handle this problem. Roger Ronnie and
Bill Maxwell show you ways to mount a ring light made for a microscope on your
Sherline mill. Perry Murlless shows you how to make your own LED ring light
from scratch. Either way, you are guaranteed to have a much better view of your
work area.
Joe Martin Craftsmanship Foundation News
Two new craftsmen added
to the on-line museum—Industrial designer Will Neely
has been a long-time fan of old hotrods and dirt track race cars. He has made
some beautiful models of these old speedsters. Another new addition is Gary Conley,
famous among model engine builders for his ¼ scale Conley V8. He is now working
on a new V8 project called the “Stinger 609”. Be sure to check out these two
new craftsmen.
Ron Colonna to
receive award at NAMES— Ron
Colonna of McKeesport, PA has been selected as the 2008 winner of
the Foundation’s Metalworking Craftsman of the Year award. He will be
exhibiting some of his engines and will be available to answer questions and
sign autographs at the Joe Martin Foundation booth, which is located next to
the Sherline booth at the NAMES show in
Howell V4 engine progress—Tom has completed the heads and distributor as well as a
number of other small parts and more operations have been completed on the
block. You can follow the progress of this engine build at www.CraftsmanshipMuseum.com/HowellV4.htm.