[AR] Re: Your Next/Dream Rocket Tool Purchase?
- From: Bill Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 08:48:56 -0400
What I have:
Lathe, 15 cm by 60 cm; Mill, 30 cm by 60 cm; both Emco Maier.
Floor drill press with "powermatic" speed adjustment.
Bandsaw by Wilton; foam hot wire cutter; surface plate.
Combination grinder / sander; special grinder for sharpening drill bits and
lathe cutters.
Two tool boxes: a standard bottom box for measuring equipment and a very large
bottom box for hand tools. Measuring equipment includes micrometers and
calipers to 60 cm, diameter tapes, standard tapes, etc. Both boxes serve as
work tables.
Special tools include a piece of aluminum angle marked in metric and inches 0
to 2 meters; made it using the mill and a scribe. Very useful for locating
holes between the nozzle and bulkhead ends of a tube.
Lots of storage....
What's needed:
The lathe is too small; something more like 30 cm swing and a one meter bed
would be a minimum; 40-60 cm by 2 meters would be much better. (Allows whole
rockets to be mounted.)
Mill is fine for the scale I work at; for 18-24" diameter launch vehicles, a
Bridgeport might be a better bet as the piece parts will be larger.
As the rockets get bigger you will need a hoist; standard engine hoist works
fine out to about 12" diameter, after that I'd want a roof crane of some sort
or at least a mobile frame w/ block and tackle.
Bill
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 19, 2015, at 12:07 AM, "Ray Rocket" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
(Redacted sender "ar0cketman@xxxxxxxxx" for DMARC) wrote:
> What tools do you find most useful for rocket fabrication? Particularly
> interested in tools for larger scale work, up to microlauncher sizes. What
> would _you_ like in your dream shop?
>
> Yep, I'm finally building the long-awaited fab shop of my dreams. After
> looking at my tool list, I'm asking aRocket for suggestions/recommendations.
>
> Ad Astra,
>
> Ray
>
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