So progress is coming along very slowly on Gunther, but it does continue. I’ve now completed the 6 aluminum axles that will transmit the torque from the two motors, through the pulleys, to the e-Maxx (remote-controlled monster truck) universal shafts. (Seen here with ball bearings, pulleys, and snap rings, and attached to the universal shaft.) I turned down the ends of the aircraft aluminum rods, and Chris helped me use his milling machine to cut some flats. (Man, I want a milling machine… CIM-101 should be fun, hopefully it’ll work out.) The robot’s design is such that even if all 4 belts were to simultaneously fail, each side of the robot would still have one powered drive wheel. As an aside, I LOVE retaining rings (aka snap rings). This was the first time I’ve installed them on anything of mine (using the lathe, of course), and they are a wonderful solution. Beats cotter pins!
The lathe is pretty cool. I was messing around with some spare 1/2″ solid plastic rod (PTFE?) and made a tiny little container. The press-on cap makes a nice “pop!” sound when you remove it quickly. It’s actually pretty cool… As soon as I get a new chuck key for the tailstock I want to try and make another one. The next one will have a cap that’s exactly the right size to hold one gram of 4F black powder, and a hole so it can be worn on a cord like a necklace. Perfect for dispensing ejection charges at the launch pad.
