p0w3r Drive: Three Cheers for the Arbor Press

Expecting to do some research this afternoon; did not exactly pan out. So I elected to say on west campus and do some wheel work.

The other night I tried boring one of the 5" 30A durometer wheels..



... but then it exploded. Synopsis tells me there are air pockets in the core material, and my feed rate was too high, which caused the bit to grab and toss the wheel. 300 fine for aluminum, not so much for plastic

Today, I went for round two. Turned the lathe into high gear, 455 rpms and lots of non-cinnamon (unfortunately) Tap-Magic. Like magic, we now has a properly bore'd wheel.



Posing with the stator for comparison.



Speaking of which, I put the stator hub back on the lathe and reduced part of the center mass. This would make internal wire organization easier by allowing more internal wiggle room.

Decided to tackle the flats next. Unable to find the binding screw for the large Vertrax mill, I went over to the ME2110 labs to barrow their cute mini mills.

OH GOD THE STORIES ARE TRUE! These mills really suck. I was making passes through aluminum like a pro, when I realized the mill axis started drifting. I felt like a inverted pendulum balancing robot, constantly adjusting to changes in my environment.




Either way, I finished the task, and with a half decent finish as well. Next chance I get, I'm asking my fellow studio ULI's how to tighten the collets on the Vertrax.

While I added a roll pin groove using a hacksaw, I finished preparing the waterjet, post-dredging. I want to say it would take about an hour to fill the tank manually, but since I filled it over the span of two days, nobody remembers. Similar is to be said about the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.

Waterjet filled, cutting commences. I cut the magnet ring laminations from a 1/4" plate of A-36 mild steel, end caps from 1/4" 6061 Aluminum, and the spacers from 1/8" polycarbonate.




Ironically, the material for the spacers was the sheet of polycarbonate that was stolen from me last semester. Hmmm, how circular.

There was drilling, tapping, countersinking, and a big hand from the enormous arbor press. I declare the hubmotor mechanically complete. That leaves us in this current state:





Gathering inspiration from Iron man 2, I proceeded to wind the motor. 23.5 turns of wire per tooth, dLRK style for space savings.

Lesson learned: If you wind with anything 20ga or lower, wear gloves or wrap cloth tape around your fingers. Your writing hand will thank me later.



Completed stator winding, terminated with a Wye connection. I'll wait to see if this motor actually works before adding the sensors. This means the possible run date is the 23rd of Feb, seeing as how UPS managed to butcher the shipping of the box of magnets (routing delays).

Until then, cheers.