Made a Turner's cube

I don't do tumbling, but everything I've read says that vibratory tumblers work more quickly than rotaries.

big guy seems to work more quicky.

Um, that's not a wood lathe and I'll bet he goes through 5gal buckets several times before he has to change media in that thing.

Can't beat the price. I got my old wood lathe and two 1/3hp motors for $20 at a tailgate sale in Sandy Eggo.

-- "I probably became a libertarian through exposure to tough-minded professors" James Buchanan, Armen Alchian, Milton Friedman "who encouraged me to think with my brain instead of my heart. I learned that you have to evaluate the effects of public policy as opposed to intentions." -- Walter E. Williams

Here's the actual cleaner. It is *dry use* only. There is a tiny size and capability difference, IMHO. :)

• Built pretty stoutly,

• Says 'Logan' on the headstock,

• Has a compound instead of a tool rest,

• Capable of crawling along at ~50 RPM

You might be right, Larry. :)

That HDPE is pretty stout stuff.

Now that sounds promising!

--Winston

Sounds like you have a bunch of blocks to square. Do you have a relative or two you can trust to help out?

That was time consuming just to model one in Alibre.

(3d pdf)

I've finally found a good use for some cerrocast I have if I ever get the jones to make one.

That way I could have flat interior faces and not worry about all hell breaking loose ;)

Wes

Wes fired this volley in news:IKvhp.892460$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-13.dc.easynews.com:

Not really. The squaring of the block (for the first re-mount) can be done as part of the machining of the first face. After that, it's just turn, locate, and machine again. (done it).

LLoyd

This is exactly what I do, I have a part of a program that makes the first face, that I comment out after the first one.

i

Are there "official" dimensions for the sizes of the inner cubes, or would some kind of scaling algorithm count? (you know, like each inner cube 0.8x or 0.9x the size of its "parent?") I kind of have nothing but spare time these days, and I'd _love_ to at least draw one up on my borrowed AutoCad, and might even get permission from Joe the Machinist (Yes, I actually have a coworker named Joe, who is a real live machinist) to use the lathe and mill in the shop to try to make one on my own. It'd also be really interesting to just draw one up in my spare time and ask him if he'd like to estimate it. ;-)

Is the defining attribute to qualify as a "Turner's cube" simply the fact that it's cubes within cubes with thru-holes?

Google is my friend, but won't tell me what dimensions qualify it as "Turner's" - my first thought would be to use some kind of geometric ratio from cube to cube, rather than fixed intervals, but how do I find that out?

Or is it primarily an exercise in CNC programming, as opposed to doing it "by hand," as it were?

Thanks, Rich

Rich Grise fired this volley in news:im6728 $edj$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

No, it's that the multiple cubes within cubes be free from one-another, and that their peripheries (inside and out) be square and not round. That was why I asked Ig why he had not completed it...

The ultimate skill is to do it by hand. CAD and CAM make projects like this overly simple. It only takes an hour or so to design one in a decent CAM system, even if you don't have any CAD software available.

There once was a time when a turner's cube was a rite of passage for new machinists learing their trades (not unlike spending a year at a filing bench!)

LLoyd

Well, don't let me dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back, but I _could_ draw something like that up on paper, tedious as it may be. It's just that using the CAD software is so much more fun!

And I still don't know if there are any "official" dimensions, or if I'm allowed to just make them up. :-)

Thanks! Rich

You mean they could be twirled around inside the outer cube, like that Boy Scout whittling project with the ball in the cage?

Thanks, Rich

Now I know what you meant. I was wondering.

I did it in straight G code subroutines.

Here it is .

(Makes a turner's cube. See projects.txt for formulas).

O sub # = #1 (X Center) # = #2 (Y Center) # = #3 (Current Z) # = #4 (Side) # = #5 (Mill Diameter) # = #6 # = #7

# = [# * #/2]

O if [ # gt #] G0 X# Y# O call [# + 0.01] # = [ [#/2 - #] + #*#*[1 - 1/sqrt[ 2 ]]]

O call [#] [#] [# + 0.01] [# - #] [#] [#]

# = [# - 2*#]

O call [#] [#] [# - #] [#] [#] [#] [#] O endif

G0 X# Y# O call [# + 0.01] O endsub

M2

I swuare them right with the turner's cube program, it has an optional one liner to square the top.

Very nice. It took me about an hour to write a G code routine to do that same.

The G code subroutine, takes all parameters, like size of the cube, end mill diameter, shrinkage coefficients etc and works one side of the cube.

This looks very interesting indeed.

Want to sell some to me?

i

That was called a poor man's deburring tumbler, but this poor man has a huge Logan lathe! Very clever, though.

i

PeteC, I do have a vibratory tumbler.

I may give it a try, but I afraid to damage the delicate cubes.

i

"Ignoramus28184" wrote in message news:2_SdnaYx5sa0RxvQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com...

I:

That will depend entirely on the media you use and the time you're willing to devote to the process given the machinery deployed. But if you need to get deep milling marks out, you can count on angle sharpness suffering in the indiscriminacy of the process.

I looked for Turner's cubes on eBay once and only saw some cheesy plastics. You might try a metal with an apparent color turn away from aluminum, say bronze/brass, to gauge differential customer interest.

A nice historical blurb on the history of the cubes and their significance in evaluating a machinists skills would be good alongside some nice poetic quote about "world's within worlds", "atoms within mass", "geometric projection", etcetera. Punchy lines are great but the copywriter's guide is that interested clients will read all they find interesting. Your descriptive powers will not have insignificant result. If you ever read the blurbs accompanying the "pet rock" phenomenon, there's proof.

Regards,

Edward Hennessey

Ignoramus28184 fired this volley in news:MPCdnSt6dKpXTxvQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Yep, you'll need some cerrotru or cerrocast to finish a turner's cube. It gets right fussy near the end, as things start to get wobbly inside the box.

LLoyd

I only have two bars left now. I gave some away earlier.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

I have been using a plastic pail as a tumbler for years. I have a big enough lathe that I can chuck the pail and use the tailstock to hold the lid in place. A couple of 2x2 slats on the inside of the pail held in by some sheetrock screws makes the tumbler complete. I use it mainly for stamped parts that need deburring.

John