Never fear, Roger. We'll start you off easy, with a simple electric
drill. Before you know it, we'll have you setting up your own machine
shop with a milling machine, lathe, drill press, band saw, etc., etc.,
etc...
I'm an electronic engineer by training and it always amazes the
mechanical engineers at work when I come up with designs and start
milling my own parts in the model shop. I just tell them that the single
most useful undergraduate course I took (35+ years ago) was an
introductory machine shop course. Can't tell you how many times it has
come in very handy!
You also had a concern about the precision of alignment of the 60-degree
steps using the bolt and socket trick. Yes, there has to be some
tolerance in the fit but any indexing mechanism has to have some space
or the pins/levers/mechanism won't engage or will get stuck and won't
disengage. Basically, what you're after is something to take the human
error (several degrees) out of the positions and make your setup as
consistent as practical.
Your observation about less-than-level surfaces is a good one. I have a
"fix" for that, too, but it's quite a bit more complicated and would
involve some welding, which is beyond the scope of "easy" level
construction. If anyone is interested, I'd suggest making the floor
fixture with a ball-nosed Allen wrench, cut off and welded to a flange.
Then use an Allen-head cap screw instead of the hex bolt. That setup
would tolerate a good 10-15 degrees of angular misalignment and give you
at least as good of repeatability as the bolt-and-socket version. The
limiting factor may be the size of the 1/4-20 Allen head, which would be
a little on the small side for stiffness in the joint, so it would take
some extra work to use something more like a 3/8" or 10mm Allen.
...but there are ways to approach that, too...
/s/jar (Alan Ritter, #removed#)
http://www.mtritter.org
> On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:44:45 +0900, AYRTON <#removed#
> <mailto:avi%40ayrton.com>> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, Mar 24, 2008 at 1:25 AM, Roger D. Williams
> <#removed# <mailto:roger%40adex-japan.com>>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I really appreciate the time and care you took to explain this,
> >> Alan. There are a couple of things that are still beyond me,
> >> like drilling a hole (I'd need a drill, right?)
> >
> >
> > Roger ...
> > you're probably just kidding, scoffing, right ?
> > I mean ...
>
> Do not possess a drill. Have not drilled a hole in anything since
> graduating from grammar school in 1955, where I developed an
> aversion to handicrafts so intense that I have never willingly
> touched a hand tool of any kind at any time since.
>
> Roger W.
>
> --
>
>
>
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