showman's kit 9

the showman's laser cuts are here and work is well under way...

LH and RH blank horn plates...



LH horn plate on CNC mill...



and 29 minutes later, fully drilled...



spectacle plates...





are nearly done and in the packing area already...



more photos to follow as work progresses

craig

OK, here's the up-date.

not actually a lot to see in this kit as it has relatively few parts, but it's a lot of work for us to get them together.

LH horn-plates are now all drilled. we have had to make a precision jig to ensure that the wielded section is attached accurately.



here we go, this now needs to be drilled again and tapped...



RH horn-plates are now on the machine, should take is about 2 or 3 days to get through these, thankfully, no welding needed.



all the other spectacle plates are done...



i can't see any reason why this wont be done by the end of the month, and kit 3 is going through the system now...

craig

RH horn-plate on CNC...



getting on with the welding of the LH plates, but still a lot of cleaning up to do...



tapping the holes is the easy bit...

unfortunately we are not going to get this kit out this week, sorry

the high levels of heat that went into the horn-plates have cause some distortion and we have to reshape the plates before we can do the final machining.

we are having to remount the cleaned up plate on the welding jig, apply more heat and allow to cool before removing. this seems to be doing the job but its taking a fair bit of time.

we should still be able to get this out next week.

more photos...

cleaning up welds...



heating plates to relive stresses...



and then back on the CNC for final machining and drilling...



the mounting area for the bearing housing need to be machined to be sure of a perfect location...

this kit should be going out on Friday. i didn't want to panic anyone but we lost a whole day on Tuesday as the CNC mill decided to throw up an "overload" alarm. unfortunately this is the only mill large enough for the plates

after a lot of head scratching we figured out it was the cooling fan in the back of the machine, and after fitting a new one we were back in production at about 4 o'clock

so we finally have the first ten kits in the box and the control model is together. all the instructions are done. more kits to follow tomorrow but we won't be booking the courier because we don't want to end up rushing. these plates need to be right. so it's gonna be Friday.

Steve has also dropped a CD in each kit box. i think these are the E-drawings we promised you but im not 100% sure as Steve was busy with customers all day so i never really got chance to ask him. (think we had some kind of open day today )

photos...

Oh My....

It's starting to look heavy..

Beginning to wonder if my workshop was built big enough..

well you will be pleased to know that the kit did go out today after all.

we got more done this morning than expected so got the courier book up for the afternoon.

hope you like the kit

craig