Electricity & Electronics for the Shop

I've seen the future and it's powered by electricity!  I love diesel engines in pickup trucks, cars and just about anything else. I love fast cars and 4x4's with powerful gasoline engines and turbochargers. This is what being a gearhead has always been about. And there's lots the homebrewed engineer can do with vegetable oil fuels and biodiesel, but if you read Wired magazine's, Autopia website you will see that "plug-in" electric cars are coming on strong. 

A new breed of gearhead is also rising to meet the challenge of working with the new battery and motor technology. Much of which is available now for hackers (gearheads) to purchase. Electric cars with 90 mph top speeds and 200 mile range are a reality. The problem is that they are being priced around $35,000. A resourceful hacker is going to be able to put something with that kind of performance together for much less.


Wouldn't it also be fun to start thinking about how to install an array of solar panels on the roof of the house to charge the new electric hot rod. And maybe produce enough power to put a serious dent in the household utility bill as well.

Now I'm a bit behind on electronics, but I found a book, Teach Yourself Electricity and Electronics, Fourth Edition, that looks like an electronics technician's associate degree program under one cover. I'm happy to say that it's well laid out and easy to read! I love it because self-learning and reaping the fruits of the knowledge gained alway make me feel like I'm like beating the System!

One Step closer to Being a Metalworking Guru!

I took my first machining class the other day. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am not an official student in this class. Regardless, the instructor has welcomed me to sit in on as many sessions as I want. The machine shop is right next door to the welding lab where I am a regular student. I happened to meet the instructor a few weeks ago when he was in the welding area. We talked and the next thing I know I'm an adopted student in the manufacturing/machining class!


So far so good. In my first session I listened to a lecture about tool and feeding speeds.  In the lab we worked at setting up workpieces in the lathe and the horizontal milling machine. The machines are commercial grade Bridgeport products with digital readout (DRO) for the axis of tool positioning and feeding.


Next time I promise I'll have pictures.


I think I got a good head start on this class from watching the American Gunsmithing Institute's (AGI) lathe videos, which I rented from SmartFlix.com How-To DVDs  The whole AGI video machine shop course covers lathes, milling machines and other machine shop tools. It is very comprehensive with 26 hours of instruction. I costs over $1000 to purchase the set, but can be rented for as little as $14.95 per DVD.  Rent the Professional Machine Shop Course: Lathe


There are also have many other Lathe and Milling videos.


 They also have Welding videos and metal shaping for Sheetmetal.

A Couple of Good Little Welding Machines

The Lincoln Invertec V155-S is one of the small new inverter type welders that is slightly larger than a lunch box and capable of very good stick and DC TIG welding. It will run off of a household electrical outlet at 115 volts and 15 amps. If you can plug it into an outlet with a 20 amp breaker it has a better range. It also can be plugged into single phase 230 volt outlet for even more performance. With the right extension cord it can be used up to 200' from an outlet. It is also able to be run off of generators that can sustain loads of 15 or 20 amps at 115 volts.  The price is around $690 with accessories for stick only. It can be purchased for roughly $950 with the stick accessories and a TIG package that includes a torch and gas regulator and hoses. The only drawbacks I can think of is that that it doesn't have any remote current control capability and it's DC only so forget about welding aluminum in TIG.



The WeldingWeb.com forum has a thread with a good hands-on  review.

Now if you are willing to spend an additional $700 you might want to look at the Miller Maxstar 150 STH from Miller Electric. It has remote control, pulsed current modes, high frequency starting, works on house current (115 volts) and is still has similarly tiny size.

There are cheaper TIG welders in the new and used markets, some of which will also do AC TIG on aluminum, but these are going to be tethered to a 230 volt outlet which greatly reduces their portability. The idea after all is to have a welding machine that can go almost anywhere and plug into any outlet and these machines can do that. -- Mitrik Spanner

Automated Manufacturing and the Homebrewed Engineer

I think I mentioned earlier, that while I was at welding class, at my local Technical College, I met the  instructor from the Automated Manufacturing (AM) program. I found out that they have Bridgeport mills and lathes available for training in the intro to AM class. Next Monday evening I get to sit-in on the class when they work with those machines.


Earlier this week I joined the AM class on a field trip. We went to the Generac Power Systems plant in Eagle, Wisconsin, mainly to see their robotic welding set-up, but Holy Cow!  It was a great experience for a (wannabe) Homebrewed Engineer like me. We saw  stainless steel exhaust tubing being bent on a mandrel bender, a CNC laser cutting table with a whopping 4' x 25' cutting table (my gestimate). We saw the engine line, where we saw everything from 4 cylinder Ford natural gas fueled engines to huge Mitsubishi industrial diesels. We also saw a CNC water cutting table where they cut insulation panels with a 10,000 psi jet of water.


The robotic welding cell was what we really came to see. This is where they weld up big diesel fuel tanks. The tanks we saw looked like they had a fuel capacity couple of a couple of hundred gallons.  Because the tanks are made of sheet metal the bodies are not perfectly symetrical, so you could never program the robot to run a plotted course for the welds. Instead the robot "feels" the tank first to gauge the positions of some key landmarks on the areas to be welded.  Then when the welding is underway the robot can sense how close the welding head is to the metal by measuring changes in the electrical circuit that vary with the distance of the electrode in the welding "torch" head from the work. It was fascinating.


As usual, I was the geek who asked questions about everything, and I was only a guest of the AM class!


One of the things I came away from the experience with is that there really is a bottom line in these operations.  The company really seemed to be trying to make the most out of every penny it invested. I learned that the engineers have a wish list of equipment that goes unfulfilled because of cost constraints.  I found out that they even shop the used machinery markets for deals. The industrial engineer that guided our tour, and the experience of seeing things firsthand, put a human face on what was only a big corporate name to me before the tour. Of course I'm always pulling for the entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial spirit and always have been throughout my adult life.


All of this makes me want to build a CNC router and/or a CNC plasma cutter from some of the plans and parts that are circulating on the internet.  More on that  later ;-)  -- Mitrik Spanner

The Benefits of Student Status

The other day I was looking at a bulletin board in the main lobby of the tech college where I take welding classes. I noticed a flyer for the University of Wisconsin's software web store. I looked closer and noticed that Wisconsin technical college students are also authorized to get student deals from the UW store. They carry Adobe products. I'm a big fan of Adobe so I was excited to see that I can get a great deal on the CS4 Design Premium bundle. It has InDesign (page layout for print), Photoshop Extended (image editing & 3D images), Illustrator (drawing), Dreamweaver (web design), Flash Pro (web animation), Fireworks (web graphics) and Acrobat Pro (PDF document creator). This bundle would cost me about $1300 if purchased at retail. The school deal would give me a 2 year personal use license for $299! I also puts me on the upgrade path, so that when my student license runs out I can purchase the full retail license for the upgrade price.


Then I started thinking about Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. I'm a fan of Vectorworks from Nemetschek so I checked out their website and lo and behold! They have a recently created student portal featuring free one year student licenses for Vectorworks Designer 2010!! This is a profesional CAD package with 3D rendering that normally costs $2400. It features modules for machine design, architecture, landscape design, and theatrical lighting. I applied online and got approval the next day. I downloaded the wares and was up and running right away. The Nemetschek student portal is rich with free training resources as well.


I'm welding, I'm blogging, I'm planning for the Wrenchtech/Shop Kulture website and now I have access to software to make it all more fun and easier. Yes I'm having fun.

Tool Review: Automotive Spotweld Cutter

I have recently been disassembling a 1989 Toyota 4runner for practice in preparation for restoration work I plan to carry out on another 4runner. One of the things I have to do is disassemble the body shell around the "B" pillar and the inner areas of the rear quarter panels.  The structure of most modern vehicles are assemblies of many stamped sheet metal sections held together with hundreds of dime-sized spot welds. Disassembling a body shell requires a good tool to take apart many spot welds quickly and cleanly. If the parts need to be saved for reuse this is the way to go. This is where a spotweld drill comes into play.  It's a tool that basically a small precision hole-saw that you use with a common electric or pneumatic drill. The better spotweld drills have replaceable pilot tips and cutters. A few companies offer a kit with a mandrel (the tool body), several replacement cutters and pilot tips or bits. One such company is Blair Equipment.  The kit pictured bllow costs roughly $40.00.  To download a video of the tool in action on a spotweld click here. Windows Media 1.9 MB or MPEG 7.6 MB

 

click image to view larger

 

click image to download video

Update:  You don't have to buy the $40 kit to get started. Amazon has the basic tool with a single double sided cutter for sale for about $12.23. You can order double sided replacement cutting heads separately. They come three to a package (six cutting surfaces) for around $11.65. Your purchase will help support this blog.

Days 7 and 8 of Welding Class

We're still working away at TIG welding. After all this is a TIG class! Last week I was welding aluminum. Now we have moved on to 316 stainless steel.  I missed two days of aluminum due to work conflicts. And missed a chance to try to weld a box out of aluminum. No problem though, there will be lots of chances to sit in on the classes that precede and that follow my mid-day class. It looks like there will be no shortage of chances to make up, or even get extra, hours of practice.


Anyway TIG on Stainless is sure different than aluminum. We were using pure tungsten with a round tip on aluminum. Now our tungsten electrodes are 2% cerium and are sharpened to a point. We also switched to DC electrode negative from AC. It also takes less amperage to weld the stainless.  Gotta run now but here are my best of the last two days. There not much, but this is my first ever training and I only have about 12 hours of practice so far.


The first picture (below) is a fusion weld on a flat position, lap joint of two pieces of  0.125" thick, 316 stainless steel, run without any filler.

 

 Below is my best bead for the session with filler (308L). Sorry for the bad picture. I struggled with lighting issues.

 

What Does A Homebrew Shop Engineer Need to Know

What does a Homebrewed Shop Engineer need to know? Ultimately it depends on each persons goals. We think some blend of brain work and hands-on skills is the goal.  Math, science and engineering skills, with practical skills like welding, machining, composites and maybe electrical/electronic tech is the model.  A quick look at  The University of Wisconsin's mechanical engineering curriculum guide might be helpful for the brain part. They list 14 three credit classes in just the main topic, mechanical engineering, alone. That's 43 credits out of the 121 credits needed to get a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.  There are only two  math classes required, a calculus and a linear algebra and differential equations class. It looks like students need to come to the program with some good math skills already mastered. There are also courses in chemistry, physics, electronics, engineering graphics and computer sciences that degree seekers need to complete.

Now I'm not suggesting that the Homebrewed Shop Engineer needs to throw himself fully behind such a curriculum, but I am suggesting that it could stand as a model. The internet offers free resources to study all these things so why not try to do what each of us is able. A little bit at a time is better than not at all. In the process each of us can find his own level. Some will want to go on through all the classes and some will not, yet all will benefit.  In the next weeks I'll be presenting an outline with links to specific resources. -- Mitrik Spanner

A Great Online Math & Science Resource

Who needs to spend a king's ransom to go to college when stuff like this is available!

The Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. They have 900+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

Be sure to check out the "What People Are Saying" column on the right margin of the Khan home page.

I'm using Khan Academy videos to make myself into a serious homebrewed shop engineer. In future posts I will be spending time focusing on alternative educational resources and plans to make it easier for anyone to do the same. So subscribe to this blog now so you won't miss any of the fun! -- Mitrik Spanner your host for the Shop Kulture blog

Math For the Shop Engineer

As an aspiring independent engineer I have to face the fact that I need to improve my math skills. I can work with fractions and decimals. Maybe I could pass a pre-algebra test. This probably places me right in the mainstream with most Americans, but it's not nearly good enough for someone who wants to be a competent shop engineer. How much math does a shop engineer need? That's what I am in the process of discovering.

I discovered this book, Engineering Mathematics, which seems to fit my needs perfectly. Part of the book's description particularly grabs my attention:

"Whether you're an engineer looking for a useful on-the-job reference or want to improve your mathematical skills, or you are a student who needs an in-depth self-study guide, Engineering Mathematics is sure to come in handy time and time again." (emphasis mine)

The customer reviews for this book are almost all five stars and filled with praise. I recently purchased the book and can say that it looks very well organized and full of good content for self-teaching.

An Opportunity to Learn Machining Pops Up!

There I was, in welding class, minding my own business, when in walks an instructor from one of the other industrial classes looking to get some welding done on a fixture he's making. Something to do with hydraulic principals for the Automated Manufacturing class he's teaching. While he's in the welding shop he mentions that he has a field trip coming up to visit a manufacturer with robotic welding facilities. I say I'm interested in the trip, so he invites me over to his classroom to sign up. While I'm there I mention to him that I'm interested in learning basic machining and that it's too bad that the school doesn't have an entry level machining class.  He says, "But we do!" I didn't see anything like that in the course catalog, but he assures me that the class "Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro" has what I'm looking for. The class description is as follows.

Automated Manufacturing Concepts/Intro

An introduction to manufacturing processes with emphasis on manual machining to prepare students for further study in the Automated Manufacturing fields. Covers shop safety practices in a machine shop, the use of manual milling machines, lathes and drill presses to manufacture parts to print, and the use of basic metrology instruments to determine if the parts are to print. Calculation and application of correct cutting parameters of selected materials and tools is practiced.

I saw the lathe and the milling machine that are used for the class. The milling machine is a Bridgeport like I have seen in many small old-school machine shops. The lathe though, is some kind of modern CNC machine, however the instructor tells me that it can be used in a manual mode. I know what I'll be doing (if the gods of metal-working are willing) come next January!

Day Six of TIG Welding

Below is a picture of my latest welding sample alongside last week's atrocity. In these exercises I'm welding with the metal in the vertical position and welding from bottom to top (vertical up). The weld on the left is horrible. The weld on the right, my latest, looks a lot better. It's amazing what changing to a thicker metal can do to help a novice welding student. It's still not nearly good enough, but it looks like I'm making progress. The first sample was done on thinner aluminum (0.0625"= 1/16" = 1.5875mm). The instructor recommended trying to weld on thicker stock. The new weld is on 0.125"(1/8" = 3.175mm) aluminum. I think it's easier, in this case, to TIG weld on the thicker aluminum because you have more time to get your heat (amperage) right before you melt a hole in your work. I'm also getting more used to doing several important things at once. Like using the foot control for the amperage, feeding the filler rod with my left hand and moving the torch with my right hand. I hope someday I'll have something really smart to say about welding, but that's it for now.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work

If you're a gearhead and tool enthusiast like I am you will be happy to know that there is now solid intellectual support for our passions. Matthew Crawford has a PHD in philosophy from the University of Chicago, but he's also been a Porsche mechanic and a motorcycle repairman. He quit a prestigious job at a Washington DC think tank to start an unassuming motorcycle repair shop on the seedy side of Richmond, Virginia.


By all means get your hands on a copy of this book.  I'm in the middle of reading the book right now and couldn't wait to blog about it. I'll do a more extensive review in the coming days. Buy the book using this link to help support the Shop Kulture blog.

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
-Slate

TechShop: A Fully Tooled Out Shop Open to the Public!

TechShop: Coming to a community near you!

Well not yet. But, if you live near San Francisco, Portland or Durham, North Carolina, and you can afford to pay the monthly fee, you can have access to a shop fully stocked with welders, machine tools, sewing machines, printing equipment, fiberglass works and about 50 other shop tools. Worried that you don't have the skills to run a lathe, a mill or a welder? Don't be! Reasonably priced classes are available to get you up to speed on the tool of your choice. TechShop is also looking to find partners who want to expand the idea to other communities.

What a great idea! I know where I'd be spending a lot of my time if one of these was near me. -- Mitrik Spanner

TechShop, Inc.
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Toll Free: 1(800) 640-1975
Local Phone: 1(650) 521-9027
info@techshop.ws

Welding School: How About On the Job Training With Pay?

Even in this rotten economy, where there are 5 people looking for work for every job opening, heavy construction firms that build bridges, power plants and refineries are looking for welding and pipefitter trainees. Many of these companies will hire people with little or no experience and put them through their own private training programs. Trade Unions, like the Pipefitters, are also eager to get new recruits. Many of these jobs offer pay while training and lots of overtime pay. Jobs like this are not for everyone. The have lots of discipline and the work can be repetitive. They can also expose workers to the rigors of working outdoors in heat and freezing cold. Of course Walmart is also hiring parking lot technicians, but if you want to get skills that you can use to earn a family supporting wage and build some serious stuff this may be something to look into.

As a guy who has lived through this kind of stuff I'd say the most important thing is to...

Do Something, and Do it Sooner Rather Than Later.

... If you get skills earlier in life you can pick a better job later, or even better, start your own business.

Check out the recruiting video for Cianbro Corp (link near the bottom of their page) . I don't have any connection to this company, but the list of positions they have to fill looks pretty impressive! It looks like they are doing public infrastructure work and utilities, where there is no slowdown in the economy yet.