Equipment in the shop.

We have added a new Vertical Mill to our shop from J&L Industrial.

The mill has a 23" x 8" table which is larger than the Mill/Lathe combo below.
A 12 speed drive with a 1 hp motor does the work. Uses R8 colletts or Drill chuck.

The weight of this machine is 300Kg or about 660 lbs.
Photo of the DRO, (Digital Read Out) on Mill/Lathe
Digital Readout on Mill/Lathe Combo

In making Enigma parts, proper equipment is needed to do the job. The Mill / Lathe Combo is one of several machines aquired for this task. The Mill / Lathe Combo is fitted with a DRO or "Digital Read Out" installed for making accurate parts. It is accurate to .01 mm

(Mill not shown in this photo)
Close-up of the DRO
Digital Read Out mounted on the carriage

The DRO tracks the movement of the carriage perpendicular to the axis of rotation or "Y" axis.
   

Vacuum chamber, the white cylinder with gauge and valves, is used in the plastic part molding process for various Enigma parts.

The chamber is used to evacuate the liquid plastic before mix, and molds before casting Enigma-Replica parts.

Incorporated in this setup is a dryer (desiccant), and for larger parts, a chiller plate (pulls heat away), since the plastic has an exothermic reaction during the cure process. This heat can easily expand minute air bubbles in the plastic which is NOT desirable.

This chamber can hold a 29" Hg vacuum for several minutes, removing any air bubbles trapped in the pre-mixed material.

Molds are generally made with outside (female) and inside (male) halves. This way we capture not only the outside detail but the inside detail as well. It will even capture the wear

Vacuum chamber with "release air" dryer, the small canister on the side. Pulls in dry air to prevent moisture contamination.
The chamber can be used horizontally or vertically.

Operations involving the Mill / Lathe Combo and other machines...
#1
Special fixtures for cutting the thumbwheels.Special Fixture cuts thumbwheels
#2
Planing the oak for the Enigma cabinet Planeing Oak to specs

#3
Cutting a set of four ratchets.
Cutting a set of 4 ratchets

The fixture holds 4 ratchets at a time.
#4
Finished ratchets are shown here after performing the final "cutout" and drilling. The ratchet mounted to the lathe faceplate is ready to be "cutout". Finished ratchets

#5
The router table is setup to cut the M4 cabinet cutout in the side panels. Router
#6
Special top radius cutter machine had to be made to do the one job of making consistent top thumbwheel radii. Top radius fixture

This web page is under construction. Jim Oram, Administrator