One of our critical drive system parts requires a circular weld. We automate it and do it in house. Requires a weld as good as humanly possible, so we eliminate the human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxa4EXiPEHg
The finished part.
http://wiki.team1640.com/images/8/84/DB11_150131-6.jpg
Very pretty stacked dimes!
Clever solution to a hard problem, looks like you could do the tubes for Prime and Deux in under an hour.
Nice. Care to share how you arranged the welding lathe?
The turntable is one I built for my own shop, for welding, cutting, & positioning round assemblies. Runs on 12v, with an adjustable speed control, either constant on, or turned on via a thumb switch. We set the turntable next to the welding table and clamp the spoolgun onto the table leg, pointing down onto the part. Part is held up by three right angle magnets. Takes a bit of adjustment to get the part turning true. Then I have a student pull the trigger on the gun, while I hit the turntable button.
I used to do the welds myself by hand, but this is much better. Lets the students take part in the process. We can knock all 8 of them out in 15 minutes. It’s fun.
I was wondering what the best way to weld those would be, I thinkyou guys found it. Here’s our solution to the same problem http://imgur.com/E9axpVI. We just thought that the shotgun approach to a bunch of machine shops in the area would be easier than finding someone who could weld them on short notice, turns out the first shop we talked to was more than happy to donate the materials and time.
Thanks for the information Keith. I’m sure our team will jump at the opportunity to try this. But this year our robot is mostly aluminium, so maybe next year.
Graham.
A welding turntable/positioner is a good off season project, useful for many things. Since even used ones were expensive, I built mine out of “junk”. I can post some pics if you like.
I would love to see pics. I’ve been thinking about building one for myself for a while now. Just haven’t gotten around to it.
Wow, I feel a bit blind now. However, that’s a very nice way to easily do that. Great Thinking!
This is the turntable. The hub & spindle is from a 3000 lb trailer axle. The round top is 1/2" thick by 14" diameter. Drive motor is a cordless drill motor/clutch/chuck. Right angle gearbox is from an angle grinder. Speed control was 10 bucks new on Ebay. Legs are about 18" long with leveling adjusters at the ends. I welded a 1/2 inch plate to the spindle and turned it down to create a flange. 4 bolts hold the top on, or any other thing I might want to bolt to it.
Items to note:
The motor and speed control is electrically isolated via the plastic control box, rubber motor sleeve and plastic sprocket on the spindle. The unit runs on any 12v power source, I did not want house current in it in case anything went awry.
A copper wiper on the spindle conducts welding current around the hub bearings.
The input shaft to the angle grinder is a std 1/4" hex drive (welded on) so I can use any gearmotor by attaching a drill coupler to it. I found I needed different motors due to the extremely slow rotation required for some jobs. Cutting down a friend’s 36" round steel fire pit with a torch required a 5 minute rotation, or about 1/16th of a rpm
All welds on the hub required preheat, nickel rods and slow cooling, as the hub is iron.
Runout at the edge of the table is about .009", one of the benefits of using a substantial hub and spindle. I wouldn’t hesitate to put 1000 lb on it.
Flexibility and modularity were my design goals (and of course cheapness:D). Feel free to ask any questions.
