Todays Project - What did you do today?

[TomG]

Today was the first of a week of "work at home" days. I've been designing a fixture at work to laser weld a couple of plastic parts together for a future product and I finally got to start building it. Unfortunately, my mill let me down. Just after lunch the head started making noise and eventually the spindle locked up. After tearing it apart, I was pleased to find that the pivot bolt for the brake mechanism had loosened up and worked its way against one of the variable speed pulley sheaves. It would have been an easy fix, but in trying to get the spindle cranked back to low speed so I could remove the motor, without being able to turn it, I managed to re-break an old repair on the lever that shifts the variable speed pulley sheave.

So after five hours of effort, I have the brake mechanism re-assembled and the broken lever brazed. If I had more time I would fabricate a new lever out of steel since it's a bit under engineered and will likely break again. Anyway, I'll get an early start in the morning and put the head back together so I can get back to work. Seriously, if I didn't know better I'd swear it was Monday.

Hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Tom