OK. So. Now that anime expo is over and I’ve had the V2 units back for about a week to toss around and evaluate I am working on more units that will actually get sent out to people.
MACHINING UPDATE
Looking at the first units actually being ready for shipping next week to week-and-a-half, though I need to dig the laser marker out of the shop mess so I can get serials into the BPT wells. Keep eyes out in the places you indicated preferred contact. I still need to grab shipping info from everyone who ordered and collect rest payments.
Primary focus for the next couple cutting sessions is getting stock prepped so I can focus on running units one after another. Shouldn’t take more than a couple nights’ work with the way I currently need to do it, I hope. The unfortunate reality of my current setup is that stock prep is annoying and slow.
I’m waiting on a new tool that might help with it in the lathe, but that’s still just kind of a bandaid solution in terms of speed. The proper way to go for the future will be to rebuild the cold cut saw we have. I can’t use it for this currently because it doesn’t cut square to the table, but the moment I can it’ll 10000% be the way to go for stock prep in all cases. Problem is there’s so many other things I’m doing during the day that I don’t have the time to stop and fix it >_>
DEVELOPMENT UPDATE:
Like I figured, there’s gonna be some stuff I gotta figure out so that I can get these cut efficiently.
Current successes:
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Form is great for the most part. The collet holding I designed lets me haul butt through the material when roughing and keep things mostly on target. I didn’t try baking them halfway through like I have some of the unresponsive things I’ve done lately, but I don’t think it’s going to matter much with the geometry of the surfaces involved.
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They’re coming out PRETTY. I have a new finishing strategy I’ve worked out with a ground and very sharp tool that doesn’t mind the titanium much at all, and that should help keep things nice and clean. The spindle still needs a rebuild, so there’s still a bit of surface irregularity visible, but it’s not bad at all. The match line issue from the V1 is all but gone in the dimensional sense, though it’s still visible because physics.
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The mill fixturing works really well. The X, Y, and Z location is repeatable to within like .0001-.00015 based on the measurements I took after installation, and the ease of just throwing a lever to fixture and release is a huge relief. It should keep the BPT pockets incredibly consistent.
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All deburring works as intended. My personal V1 unit ended up shifting just enough with the old fixturing that I have a pretty bad burr on a couple of the surfaces inside the BPT that I notice fraying of strings. All the edge break chamfers in the V2 units are very clean and finger/string safe, which is nice.
Current issues to solve:
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They’re HEAVY. Both V2 units I cut ended up being ~4g overweight. That’s pretty huge, but I can blame a bit of it on my getting them done at like 4AM. I meant for these guys to be 58.7g, they ended up being ~62.5. As a result they run ridiculously stable for 1A but hit pretty hard on the recall if you’re not expecting it. I’ll be running down some dimensional variances as quick as I can to try and get things more in line with the design weight, but I may need to adjust the design to pull MMOI down a hair if they stay massy when properly cut.
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There was one place where a burr ended up sticking around. I think it’s down to my programmed path not taking a tool radius into account properly. The same issue also may have messed with the form a bit and contributed to the added mass.
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Responsiveness may end up on this list but we’ll have to see. I equipped the two units I sent to Vegas with the center trac bearings, and they ended up being incredibly unresponsive. I tossed a bit of vaseline onto the pads to try and fix the issue, which worked pretty well provided I used a specific string that seems to work better for responsive play. When I got the units back I swapped to a regular flat bearing and the issue went away entirely no matter which string I use. I need to make sure I understand the issue properly, so I plan to confirm this dichotomy with fresh and clean pads.
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Time is still an issue post cup roughing. I still need to work on getting the total cycle time for these guys under an hour. I saved myself roughly a half hour, which is nice, but there’s still work to be done.
LIFE UPDATE
Remember that original delay back in February when I just kinda dropped off the map and had the family medical happenings? Well that was me and my wife finding out we’re having our first kid in October. Took a bit of time there at the start for just needing some extra time together and such. 6+ months in and we’re finally ready to be public about it, so I figure I can finally explain that first hiccup. Should be a trip!