From: "John Murray" 
To: "'Mirror Matic'" ,
        
Reply-To: "John Murray" 


G'day Everyone,
        After some fun getting my Mirror Matic machine built I've fired
it up for the first time in anger. A few small problems cropped up. The
intermediate shaft slipped in the bearings and dropped enough to cause the
pulley to grate on the motor housing. Very loud way to find this out.
        After using waterproof tape to tape the 8" blank to the hat, I
found out that it wasn't, when I tipped the platter upside down to clean
the sludge. The blank missed the concrete gutter by an inch! After settling
the old heart down after this, I bought a different brand of waterproof
tape. That solved that problem. As well, I have decided to stop tipping it
upside down without holding on to the bugger first!
        I made an edge on tile tool 80% size of the blank with the tiles
spiral wound on. After a few wets some of the edge tiles started to come
off. I found this didn't happen when the grit was gently shaken onto the
blank, but, if a large amount spilled on there was a hell of a jump by the
tool with occasionally a tile coming loose. I removed the outer layer of
tiles but unfortunately the 2nd inner layer has started doing the same
thing. I'm not too bothered as this is a learning experience. One thing I
have noticed is that the hogging is a bit slower than I would have thought.
I suspect that the tool is slightly big and also that there is a build-up
of sludge under the tool which is affecting this. The next tool I'll make
will be about a 60 to 65% size and see what difference this makes. I'll be
trying as well a different way of laying the tiles in the dental stone.
I'll let you know if it works out.

        I'll try and get some more pictures of the machine and the
grinding (and the slowly disintegrating tile tool) on the web site in a day or two

Cheers

John Murray
Whyalla
South Australia
Our ATM page is at
http://astronomy.sa86net.com

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