The Sherline Miniature Machinist's Newsletter
Number 8,
Customer Projects
A cab-forward live steam locomotive by
Dwight Ennis
Photo 1 shows Dwight at a recent show. Photo 2 shows an
old photo of the prototype Dwight worked from while photo 3 shows the
finished but as yet unpainted model.
Dwight Ennis purchased a new Sherline 2000 CNC mill and lathe and went to
work on a live steam locomotive. While running on G-gage or 45 mm track, it is
technically what they call Fn3, or 1:20.3 scale. (G is
defined as 1:22.5 scale.) Dwight's web site chronicles
in detail the construction of many of the parts. Links to video of it running
and his continually updated site are provided in the text from Dwight below.
Scales up to and including those that run on 45 mm track are appropriate for
tabletop machine tools.
Dwight notes, “Here's the live steam locomotive I'm building. It's a model
of
Shop Tip of the month:
Cutting bevel gears, by David Lehrain
Steps in cutting the bevel gear
and the pinion gear.
Cutting gears is a project that can offer very satisfying and useful
results and for which small machine tools are well suited. David Lehrain is
featured in Tip 27 in the
“Tips” page as he shows you how he makes a set of bevel gears on his Sherline
CNC mill. These were used in the axel of a powerful Nitro Methane powered R/C
truck model. Additional photos, screenshots a link to the g-code used and
formulas can be found by reading the entire tip, which is much too detailed to
reproduce here in its entirety.
These photos show the finished gears and the gears installed in
the RC truck driveline.
Product Spotlight
P/N 8700 CNC Indexer
Though sized for use on Sherline tools, the
model 8700 CNC indexer has
found devoted users in other fields like photography, laser marking and other
industrial uses on full-size machines. For clock makers or others who produce a
lot of gears, the ability to simply enter a number of divisions between 1 and
999 makes cutting gears easy and reduces errors. A circle can also be divided
by degrees with accuracy to three decimal places. It’s easy—just enter then number of divisions or degrees, hit “Next”button
to index the table or the “Previous” button to return to the last position.
Speed, direction and backlash can be changed in the “Settings” menu. There is
also a “Program” menu where the built in chip can be programmed to remember 2
different programs of up to 40 blocks with 4 parameters per block. It can also
be interfaced with other CNC machines that send a Step or Direction signal and
it can be daisy-chained with other Sherline 8700 indexers or with the 8800 Linear
controller to set up small production operations quickly and easily. The
4" diameter rotary table, controller, power supply and cables—a completely
self-contained unit—sells for $725.
Did you know?
• Linked from the main menu in the “Other
Products” section (Section 3) is another Sherline web site you may not
know about. Sherline’s Industrial Product
Division (www.SherlineIPD.com)
offers a number of ingenious slides, spindles, leadscrew drives and other
components that can be used kind of like an industrial Erector set to put
together simple movements and drives for production setups. Using standard
Sherline extrusions and components, we are able to put together these slides at
a very reasonable cost. Slides are available in manual or CNC form and in some
combinations not offered in the regular Sherline line. Next time you need to
build some small tooling, keep Sherline IPD in mind. To keep costs down, the
components are sold only direct from Sherline and are not offered through our
regular dealer network.
The LM trailer tongue scale (left) and LM2 suspended hydraulic scale
(right)
• Sherline Hydraulic Scales—Also in the “Other Products” section of the main menu on the
Sherline web site is a link to our hydraulic estimating scales. Two models are
offered: One measures trailer tongue weight and the other is a suspended scale
(like a big fish scale) that measures suspended weights up to 5000 lb. Both use
a very simple principle to translate hydraulic pressure into a reading of
weight in pounds or kilograms. With only one moving part (the piston) they are
economical, sturdy and accurate to within 2% at mid-range—plenty close for
estimating safe trailer tongue weight or when loading heavy items on a truck.
The LM trailer tongue weight scales are available in 0-1000, 0-2000 or 0-5000
readings for $110. The LM2 suspended scale is available in 0-2000 or 0-5000
readings and lists for $250.
Shows
Photo 1: The internal combustion engine
room of the
Photos 2 and 3: A 1/3 scale hemi
by James Weber and an almost complete Rolls Royce Merlin by Bob Haagenson
were part of the display.
• The W.E.M.E. show (Western Engine Model Exposition—http://www.wemeshow.com/) in
• Next show—G.E.A.R.S. (Gas Engine Antique Reproduction
show), Labor Day Weekend. Although Sherline is not attending in force, representative Jim Clark will be there with catalogs and
answers to your questions on Saturday. See their site at http://www.oregongears.org.
• After the WEME show mentioned above, fifty more engines from Paul
Knapp’s collection were transported to the