JasonB14

Not sure but I do know that out of all the ones I watched videos of and seen around the web, all but 1 used a grinder with saw blade....I’m eventually gonna try a chainsaw blade just working on getting a few baits made up right now. For sanding the balsa I use 180 grit by hand and it literally takes less time than the machine takes to make the next. Cedar will be a little harder so the drum type flap sander in a drill press may be your best bet

I made a new more permanent master, made it in 2 pieces and put a 1/8 rod dead center of the body so no more wobble. I’ve tried different feed speeds and it seems to not matter much the micro ridges are there but I can also confirm that with 180 grit sand paper by hand that they sand out in less than 2 minutes. Pretty happy with it at this point

Only need 1 ...I didn’t notice that was for 2, that’s what I use to pay for 1.

Wayne my ball screw is 12” long and 16mm diameter so it’s pretty hefty and like I said there’s practically no weight on mine because the bulk of my weight is riding on linear rails and bearings. as far as power, you could go with a converter or do what I did and source an old 12v server power supply. The ones I use out out 12.4 volts and 75amps, which is waaaay more than you’ll ever need and because of their purpose they’re super reliable and really cheap. if you go this route I can help you with the very slight modifications you have to make to get it to work outside a sever https://www.ebay.com/itm/193605326994

The way I have mine built there is very little weight on the screw. So depending on how you build it would depend on the size of the threaded rod and how much deflection it has. And ball screw prices are no where near as costly as they use to be...with both end blocks the nut and nut cap was 54$

My ball screw is 300mm or 12” ish I’m not using nearly all of it. The motor is very strong, don’t think it would have any problems, but a wiper motor may work better for you.

Wayne I personally didn’t want to deal with gears and chains so I went with 2 separate motors and direct drive with PWM speed controllers...the ball screw has a very aggressive pitch and normally used with stepper motors or servo motors. The motor I’m using cost like 15$ from Amazon and it’s so small you could probably hide it in your hand

Wayne the ball screw is a 4mm pitch (4tpi)and the the drive motor is 3rpm max so that’s just under 1/2” per minute feed. I can slow that down to about 1/8” feed per minute but just gotta see if that improves the surface finish. I’m not overly concerned with time as I can do the sanding by hand while the next one is cutting...and of course version 2.0 will have multiple cutters and possibly dc powered grinders. This was fun to build and learn and hopefully I can make it even better and make some killer balsa cranks. The next step though is to make a back poured mold to hold the blanks perfectly square for cutting the the lip slots. I have a plan but I’m open to ideas. I’m thinking about a dremel with a saw wheel held vertical and the blank sits belly down in the mold and slid across the saw blade at the desired angle

In that temporary master I didn’t get the pins dead centered which caused the wobble you see, however the end result was not affected at all as it is for all intents and purposes identical to the master...I’ll make me a 2 piece master and put a solid pin all the way through it and that should fix that issue, also the motor driving the ball screw can be turned down more, I started with it wide open but that’s only 3rpm, I slowed it down during that cut and the ridges got smaller. I think a round tooth blade would help some but haven’t found one yet.....maybe even a 4 1/2 chainsaw blade. Overall for no test runs I’m pretty pleased. Thanks for the advice along the way. I’ll probably pull it all apart and paint it this weekend and then work on some sort of box around it to hook my dust collection system to....balsa dust can’t be healthy as fine as it is.

Wayne that’s ultra fine ridges and balsa ....sanding takes about 45 seconds. vodkaman...I’ll make it public...I thought the link would let you view it. here’s the public link

Well machine is functional...here’s a link to YouTube video...it’s private so only access is through link. And here’s a picture of very first copy...I got really lucky or I’m really good...not sure which lol. That master was just a quick mock up to try machine. Still have to finish welding and put in my adjustment rods for limit switches. But so far I’m satisfied

Took a little break over the weekend to do some rigging on the boat and got back to the machine last night. It’s at about 75% completion but I started wondering if I could make my master a little over sized and then offset the stylus and the blade to get the carving original size? I’m sure it can be done but anyone that has made one of these, have you played with that at all?

Waaaay past the barb now lol i

Thank you kind sir!!

Nothing in package...found this picture on Amazon