Itchy: blocks made

I hate:

• Slitting saws.
• The makespace slitting saw.
• The bandsaw I used instead.
• Hell
• All Capulets
• Thee

Makespace needs better slitting saws. But I avoided using a hacksaw, so at least all of the blocks look the same. They are not as neat as I wanted.

I used the four jaw chuck on the lathe to put a 15mm hole into four blocks, and then I gave those shoulders so I could bolt them onto lengths of extrusion. Those give me a connection that goes from square to round. However, they are not a perfect fit on the round bearings. I think they were all the same size when I made them, but thermal expansion made the aluminium bigger. That’s how fine the differences are. I took them all to the same size. Maybe it’s tiny ridges inside, but I’m sure the pieces were larger when they were hot and inside the lathe, clamps not withstanding.

The shouldering operation gave me a hat shape with an offset circle inside the top part. I drilled through the shoulders and the widest remaining part of the big bit of the hat. I cut through into that, which is the part that should have had a slitting saw, from the side. So then my circle had a little outlet where metal had been removed. I tapped half of that, so I could put a bolt through and cinch it closed. It also meant that the pieces would open up wide enough that even the tight ones would admit the bearings. Then I put the bearings in and bolted them closed and put them onto the bearing rods. Then I ran them up and down and smiled a hell of a lot.

I might end up opening the drilled parts of the shoulders. Right now they are tapped, which means the bolts will tighten into them. If I drilled them out, bolts would go through them instead, and tighten in the extrusion. I’m not yet sure which way up they go. I don’t want to do extra work or waste what I’ve got, but if I have to turn the blocks upside down and/or drill them out, I will.