Projects
Below is a listing on projects that I have worked on with links to files, photos, and videos. It has been my goal to try and document what I have been working on as much as possible, however you’ll find that more recent projects have better documentation, files, photos, etc…
| Project | Categories | Links |
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Last Updated: 4/27/2014
This project covers the entire process of building a feature rich constant current Colloidal ( ionic ) silver generator. Features include automatic polarity reversal, magnetic stirrer, and more.. |
Electronics Projects | Project Page, Video |
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Last Updated: 3/24/2013
This project covers the entire process of building a small aluminum melting furnace out of paint cans, to the tools required to cast aluminum with it. Covers the building of the furnace, a simple crucible, and a lost foam pressure head tool. |
Metal Casting | Project Page, Video |
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Last Updated: 10/01/2013
Project includes all EAGLE Schematics, Boards, PIC C18 Controller Code, etc. This was designed to control the 2hp treadmill motor that drives the spindle of my Gingery Lathe, however you could use it on any machine tool upgrade project. |
Electronics, Lathe Project | Project Page |
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Gingery Lathe
Last Updated: 9/20/2013
I wanted a lathe, but didn’t want to pony up the dough for a chinese 7×12, so thus began my journey toward building a Gingery Style Lathe. |
Lathe Project | Blog Posts Photos Videos |
*note: This is not a complete list of my projects as I just began working on this page in February 2013 in preparation for the release of my DC Motor Controller & Driver. I will hopefully add the rest of my projects from the past here, however you can find out more about those projects by checking out the blog posts, project photos, and project videos.
Cheers,
Morgan
Really a great projects page! I started building a lathe for the very same reason you did, I refuse to buy a chinese lathe! My machine is based on the Gingery design(using Pratt & Whitney way design)the charcoal furnace became more of a project to use than results which led to a gas fired unit, the wood patterns gave way to lost foam and we are still building away! I should be up and running very soon. At present I’ll use gear drives and step pulley’s for power transmission. Once this machine is built a vertical mill is the next item to construct, based on Scott Perkul’s design!
Best regards;
Steve
Thanks Steve!
That’s awesome you are getting close to finishing your lathe. I have a bunch of upgrades for the lathe that I’ll be documenting as I get through them. Overall I’ve been really satisfied with how it has turned out, and am glad I didn’t buy a discount Chinese lathe as well. My wife ended up buying me a Grizzly Mini Mill, which has proved to be helpful, but if she didn’t I probably would have built a milling attachment for the lathe, and then the Gingery Horizontal Mill. I’ll definitely look up the Scott Perkul’s Vertical Mill design.
Do you have any photos or anything of your lathe / setup? I’m always interested in seeing what others have done.
Charcoal was definitely time consuming and I’m extremely glad I switched to propane right away.
I’ve been wanting to try lost foam for a long time. I ended up building the 5 minute foam cutter that can be found on the makeprojects.com website. I made one attempt at it thus far which produced horrible results, but I’m sure I’ll try again. I’d imagine the melt was not hot enough as it took a few seconds for the metal in the pressure head to flow down into the foam… I used EPS foam ( the white stuff ). The surface finish ended up being quite horrendous ( maybe I need to use the blue foam blocks, but I didn’t want to buy a 4′x8′ sheet ). I also think my sprue collapsed at some point which prevented enough metal from flowing into the foam pattern – I definitely poured enough metal as the pressure head had a nice ingot in it when I opened it up. I used 20 minute fast set drywall mud to coat the foam as many have suggested online, though I found that to be a rather horrible mess to work with, though possibly the consistency wasn’t right – I was hoping to just be able to dip the part in, but found I had to paint the stuff on ). I also didn’t coat the sprue in drywall mud, and used a hot metal rod to melt through the center of the sprue foam before pouring.
Anyways, lost foam seemed like a great way to get really detailed castings, and I also like how quickly everything can be setup for the casting session – prep the parts the night before, no need to ram up molds, or anything like that. If you have any tips, or had any initial follies definitely drop me a message.
Cheers,
Morgan
I just wanted to say thanks for putting your work and progress online I am planning building the Gingery Lathe and was hoping to use some of your information for reference or whatever it can help me with. Good Luck and good job.