I got some code made and tried to get it to run on one of the old machines in the shop. its probably 30 years old so its really finicky on how its used. I *thought* I could get some help from my old instructor but hes been close to useless lately as hes "semi-retired." I gave up on that machine and got help elsewhere... So heres my setup on the old POS machine that nobody seems to be able to run. I got it to kinda work before giving up.

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But after I swapped over to a newer machine (owned and operated by a local technical school... they share the same building as us) things started going along much, much faster. I now have enough code to run the backside of the horn ring. I need to draw up plans for the front and turn that into code. That should be done tonight.

Here are some pics of the setup on the "new" machine (a Haas):

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And the saw I've been using to cut off my blanks:

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And a short video:


Keep in mind pretty much all of these parts pictured are scrap from one problem or another, which sucks. But... I think I'll start having correct parts made tomorrow. I'm going to cut up the material thats in the shop for my experimental/practice runs and make up my backside runs and then continue to do back side runs when I get more material in the mail (from Ebay, $180 shipped for 2 feet). Next week I should be able to run the front side of each part and then put them on an indexer on a manual mill to cut the holes for the allen heads.

I still need to find a source for the allen bolts but I've got a couple leads on some places around town.

Whew, thats a mouthful! Keep watching, I'm pushing hard to get this done by the end of the semester

I have a few small bugs to work out of the software, but I think I'm almost ready to run all my backside code. Here is a sample of what I ran today. Its on 5.3 diameter 6061 aluminum stock from the shop so its a bit too big. It'll still be a tad too big when I get my 4.75 OD stock from a vendor on eBay later this week but thats ok. When I run the code for the top I'll have an operation trim the sides down to 4.705 and kill the .05 with sandpaper on a lathe. I'll also cut the top down to the correct dimension as well.

Handmade vs. CNC cut vs. OEM factory (with button attached)

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Shots of the CNC cut part

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We're getting close to a production run!!

Surely late but maaaybe? Got 1 still that you will sell? I have 6 beautiful homes for it

Please do not ressurect threads from the dark ages. LOL. We haven't seen this member since 2008.