Leibniz IFW has some tricks up their sleeve

My favorite is the milling of micro patterns, but in a few weeks my advisor and I will be fly cutting micro dimples in cylinder sleeves for an unnamed top US engine manufacturer.  These micro dimples can reduce piston-cylinder friction by up to 17%.

Disclaimer: I try to limit my posts in the 'Projects' section to specifically my own work. I am not trying to take credit for the video or all that is shown in it, however as previously mentioned, I am currently working on methods to improve mirco dimple technology at the IFW.

Latest Project Concept

In my bio I told you that I'm interested in making mechanical sculptures/art, but until now there's little evidence, so I've decided to upload some images of a project that I have been working on. I still haven't decided on a name, and need to work on the drive mechanism, but now that the first parts are done the rest should be easy.  I plan to drive the largest gear using gravity and a weight similar to a grandfather clock.

  

I have a few other concepts in the works so maybe on a rainy day I will try to get them into the blog.

Electric Long Board Project

About 5 months ago an electrical engineering friend of mine approached me about some help regarding his senior design project.  He wanted to design and build an electric long board.  He would be responsible for the control board and all of the electric functions and he wanted to know if I would help with the mechanical aspects.  Of course I obliged, mostly out of sheer curiosity and also because I had some extra time on my hands at the moment.

We went over the motor he had selected and determined the best way to fix each component and what type of gear and belt drive to use. The next step on my end was to build a bracket that could fix the motor to the board.  The main problem was that because the board pivots at the truck, the motor would have to be mounted on the truck itself in order to keep the belt drive aligned.  Also, I came to realize that EE's don't use much CAD software, so I started with a paper template and some measurements and worked from there.

The first iteration was a little rough. Luckily the trucks he bought had a decent place to mount the bracket. The trucks were cast and unfinished so I needed to mill a flat area and tap a hole to mount it.  After a remake of the original bracket attempt, everything came together quite nicely.  

       

He completed the final assembly on his own, adding a safety on off button that you stand on while riding. That way if you fall of the board the motor shuts down automatically.  Also, the knob coming out of the control box on the right (looking from the bottom side) is used to adjust the power delivery to the motor and therefore the speed.  All in all, a fun, quick and successful build.

June 2014 Update

My internship at the Leibniz Institute of Production and Machine Tooling is nearly half over, so I thought now would be a good time to share an update of what I've been able to work on so far. The bulk of my responsibilities requires that we turn samples then conduct measurements on the specimens.  The specimens have been cut using various size cutters, different speed and feed rates, and in some cases different materials. Below are some photos of the measurement setup and what the results look like.

Other than just the personal work that I completed, I have been able to witness the execution of some pretty amazing tests that other PhD students have been working on.  One of the crown jewels of this institute is their work with 5-axis milling optimization.  A lot of effort goes into the creation of irregularly shaped objects such as false teeth, or the bust of Sir Wilhelm Leibniz.

Finally, here is what the facility looks like from above, I was really impressed with how clean it is.

Elmer's Comber Rotary Engine Project

After completing my first project I wanted to step up the difficulty level a bit. I decided to go with Elmer's #46 Comber Rotary Engine. The plans can be found at http://www.john-tom.com/html/ElmersEngines.html. I chose this engine mostly due to the uniqueness of the valve cam action.  The two pictures above show the cylinder and main bearing assembly.  It's made using 7075 aluminum with brass press fit for the cylinder sleeve and main bearing.  I was quite happy with the results.

Completed parts.  I don't currently have my own video of the engine running as I am currently out of the country, however I was able to find one on youtube of the same engine build. I have posted it in the video section under the title of 'Elmer's Comber Rotary Engine'.

First Project Results

This was the first project I ever worked on in the machine shop. I'd had quite alot of experience at this point working with wood and in general carpentry, but had never worked on a mill or lathe.  As you can see, it's not the most beautiful contraption, but it ran like a champ on compressed air. Brass tube in the top picture is the inlet and the small hole above it is the exhaust.  This type of engine is known as a wobbler and I highly recommend it as a starter project for its simplicity.