When we last left this project, I had just completed soldering the coils for our Permanent Magnet Generator together in star configuration. As you can probably imagine, things started to get a little “springy” when trying to fit everything into the mold. When I’d get one coil exactly in its place relative to the magnets proposed rotational path, it would cause another one to move or pop-up. So I broke out the good ol’ duct tape and started anchoring each one in the correct position.

With each coil held securely in its place, the next order of business was Continue Reading »

We had decided last year that when it started to get too cold to work outside that we’d get some of the interior work done in the house. Even though we’re still watering the trees because it’s been so warm & dry, we decided that it’s time to replace the painted interior finger-jointed trim with some nice, stained wood molding.

Of course you know this means I want to make the molding ;) but I’ll need a router bit with a profile that suits Leigh… and I surely don’t want to have to route a house-worths of wood with my hand router. I figure I need a table router:
Step 1.
Remove the baseplate from your hand router and after drilling a hole in the center of the top of an old cabinet for the bit to poke through (and some mounting holes that will match the ones that held the baseplate on), attach the router to the underside of the cabinet top.

Since the cabinet top is thicker than the original baseplate, you’ll probably need longer screws.

Close-up

I also routed out half the thickeness of the cabinet top to allow the bit to poke through plenty.

From the top
Don’t mind the writing on the cabinet, it was salvaged from a renovation job. Notice the 3 counter-sunk mounting holes. In this image the angle iron rail for the fence is already attached to the sides.

Step 2.
The cabinet seems a little low . It would be uncomfortable to have to do all that work hunched-over if I don’t have to. We can solve this by adding some legs.
Cutting some 2″x2″ angle so each leg is 3″ further out at the bottom make the base 6″ wider for stability and adding this 14″ to the bottom puts the working height at ~ 36″.

Step 3.
They say that good fences make good neighbors, but in this case one would also make for a straighter job. As you  noticed in the previous images,  some 2″x 2″ angle has been bolted onto each side of the cabinet, flush with the top. These will be the rails for the fence to slide on. 

After laying the 22″ length of 1.25″ box tube *square* across the top, I welded a 7″ piece of 1″ x 1/4″ to the bottom, crosswise on each end. They slide along the outer edges of the angle to keep the box tube square.

Now that the fence stays square to the table and is able to slide for different jobs (maybe a little stiff, but that’s better than toulouse, lautrec), we need a way to keep it in place.

This little piece of leftover scrap 1″ x 1/4″ about 4″ long will act as a keeper under the slide. The image shows the fence rolled-over so I can tack weld the keeper to the bottom of the slide.

Like this:

In case my terminology isn’t creating the right picutre in your mind, here’s a profile shot of where I am:
The slide is welded crossways to the bottom of the fence. The keeper is tack-welded to the bottom of the slide, creating a groove for the angle-iron rail to run in. The C-clamp is applying slight pressure to the tack-welded keeper to hold it tight to the rail while I weld the keeper solid to the slide.”

The slide assembly for one side welded solid:
I know my inverted work leaves something to be desired, but I’m a homeowner who has a welder, not a welder who has a home.

Testing for sufficient lockup.
The C-clamp applying slight force on the near side is testing to ensure that the far side sufficiently binds as well. I want to create enough tension with only one fastener to hold the entire fence in place, yet have it freely slide when loosened.

Step 4.
Obviously, the drawers won’t go back in with the router hanging down inside the cabinet. If I were real good, I’d create a faux front door on hinges and attach the drawer faces to it for looks – but I don’t have any matching blue laminate laying around so I’ll just shorten the drawers instead:

Step 5.
I won’t call it finished, but it is usable. Extra points to anyone who’s been following along the posts these last few months and noticed that the old workbench made from pallets is gone. These cabinets came out of a doctor’s office and are heavy-heavy. I used the larger ones, the sink base & a solid core door for my new work area. This cabinet  should also serve it’s new purpose well.

Not shown:

• Towards the end of the evening when I tested it out, I realized it was going to be a pain to pull the drawers out to adjust the height/depth for different bits. Not an “everyday” matter, but still not convenient so I drilled a hole in one side of the cabinet, made a longer adjusting bolt & added a “T” handle for ease of use.

Still to do (and post):

• Make an “over center” clamp to hold the fence in place without having to use other tools.
• Add an electrical outlet to the inside to plug the router into and a switch to the outside of the cabinet.

Since no permanent modifications were made to the router, it’ll take less than 5 minutes to remove it and re-attach the baseplate & adjusting screw for its originally intended hand-use if needed – and I can keep those original parts in one of the small drawers.

All three phases are individually wired. All that is left is to cut the loose starts to length, remove the insulation & connect them all together in star configuration…

Three Phases ready to connect in star

So let’s do it:

Soldering the Star connection

The three phases are wired together:

Three Phases Wired

I could’ve cut and attached the outer diameter to the plywood base of the Continue Reading »

Larger versions of the images in this post (and more) are viewable in The PMG Gallery. Click on each thumbnail image in that gallery for a more detailed descripiton of each.

The wire arived last week and by dinner-time this evening we had the 1st phase of coils in their proper layout and connected together on what is to be the beginning of the mold for the stator. The plywood is for layout purposes and will eventually be used to cast the fiberglass epoxy around the coils. It will not be part of the machine. You can also just make out the other 6 completed coils in the shadow of the shelf.

Fig 1. The stator began by figuring the arc of travel the magnets will eventually make as part of the rotor and laying that out inside the outer diameter of the stator. This will allow me to place the center of each coil in the path of optimum magnetic flux.

Fig 1: 18" square plywood with 8", 12" and 15.5" Concentric Circles

 
Fig 2. Using a Table of Sides, Angles and Sides I was able to determine that Continue Reading »

The other day one of my neighbors hooked me up with some industrial metal shelving for the garage. It was very generous of him and quite the score for me, but I ended up needing 80 – 100 machine screws to put it all together… nothing out of the ordinary, just some 1/4-20 flat-heads would do nicely, so off to Lowes I went.

They had them in those little drawers, but in Stainless Steel at 2 for $2.00 I was looking at $80 – $100 just for screws… not for this project. You know that finding someone half-way decent to help at these places is hit & miss and I can generally find what I want by myself, but one of the workers found some brass ones for me. I was still looking at $60 and didn’t want brass anyway. Off to Home Depot.

Home Depot also had them in brass for close to the same price as Lowes (I guess there’s a lot of boat builders here in land-locked Colorado) and then I found the ones I wanted, but in those stupid little plastic packages for 4 for $0.98 . That’s still $25 bucks and I guess I’m too ‘old school’ because it wasn’t so much the price anymore as it was that you can’t seem to get a box of zinc coated machine screws at a hardware store. I walked out thinking, “If they don’t have what I need, they might as well have nothing”, a comment I’d heard growing up, from my father to more than one salesperson as he’d walk out of a store . Continue Reading »