Hill's Ultimate Shaft Saw Machine = WOW!

scdiveteam

scdiveteam

Rick Geschrey
Silver Member
Hi,

I visited Darren Hill's shop yesterday to see his new 3rd generation shaft machine he has almost finished. Here are some pics of this trick pony.

This machine is awesome and is complete with a vernier controlled single DC Motor that performs all of the linear motion and and lathe functions. Quite impressive.

It has a completely adjustable tail stock and so you can handle everything from a full butt with a pin, oversized shafts, forearm, handle, butt sleeve, or straight dowel with ease. There is also a turret mount multi taper bar set up so you can quick change up to 4 tapers in about 30 seconds.

This baby is built on the 80/20 rails but the linear travel is on precision slide rail that travels effortless with very high accuracy.

The whole automation system is based on the speeds and feeds for the final pass concerning the gear ratio of the lead screw to the lathe function for the ultimate RMS finish. As the operator increases the travel speed the lathe speed increase for hogging and intermediate passes which is perfect because as you take a deeper cut on hogging for example, you need more torque and speed from the motor's power curve.

This unit is almost ready to ship to a very noteworthy cue maker that we all know and appreciate here on the form. Darrin has been working in his shop like a mad scientist putting in very long hours into the wee hours of the morning for over a month machining all of the components and assembling this beast.

Great Job Darrin!

Enjoy the pics,

Rick G

Darrin able to put a smile on his face as he is very close to completing the arduous task of making his third generation saw machine work to perfection

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Adjustable tailstock mounted on pucks that slide on the linear tack system
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Quick change revolving taper bar set up
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Smooth half nut set up for starting travel function
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One more gear ratio adjustment needed to get the feeds and speed dialed in perfect. We test drove this baby today and timed the speeds with the laser tach and it needs to adjust up 6 extra teeth on the drive sprocket
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Power supply and DC controller ready for plexiglass enclosure plates.
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E-Stop is completely adjustable. Note the linear travel rail mount in the foreground.
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Darrin's Machines and Shop..

WOW!!! What a place to live in!!!
I thought I was living in Paradise??? :wink:

You're quite a accomplished guy Darrin.. :)
I admire machine designers and toolmakers..
(Execpt the guy who made my new nonaligning lathe... :o)



Alton < Stuck here in Hawaii with only sun, sand and surf.... :o
 
Beautiful machine!!!
No overhang on that saw machine unlike most I've seen.
Looks much safer too.
 
This has been a labor of love and it's not even mine . to build something from scratch is a big job , from the idea to the raw materials , machining testing takes a mad man in my book I'm not mad maybe a little crazy. this baby takes care of all the lathe work time . like doing rounds , tapered forearms , tapered handles , tapering a cue , cutting a shaft wow how nice is that , a do all machine. the machine is super quiet and can hog , finish u name it . and its not big it's just setting up on my bench when at the right height its the same as any other normal size shaft machine. cue making is one thing but building your own machinery is another to be the best you have to think outside box.D Hill
 
hillscues said:
This has been a labor of love and it's not even mine . to build something from scratch is a big job , from the idea to the raw materials , machining testing takes a mad man in my book I'm not mad maybe a little crazy. this baby takes care of all the lathe work time . like doing rounds , tapered forearms , tapered handles , tapering a cue , cutting a shaft wow how nice is that , a do all machine. the machine is super quiet and can hog , finish u name it . and its not big it's just setting up on my bench when at the right height its the same as any other normal size shaft machine. cue making is one thing but building your own machinery is another to be the best you have to think outside box.D Hill
Click to expand...

Nice machine DH.
How do you switch taper bars ?
 
Hi,

I forgot to mention that DC Motor can run all day long and it does not get hot. All top of the line stuff in this bad boy.

Darrin did not spare any expenses. That is the only way to get world class results.

Rick
 
IMHO ALL of Darrin's machines rate a WOW!!!

I've asked a couple of questions on here about CNC machines and his answers have always been helpful.

But I'm happier that his back injury has recovered well enough for him to get back into building machines. I know from experience there are untold hours of standing on your feet and bending this way and that to get the machine put together and dialed in. He speculated after his last big build that "I must have a million hours in it!!" And after all that work, he allows detailed pictures of the finished product to be shown on here - great design ideas for those of us less experienced.

:thumbup: Darrin!!!
 
Nice build, Darrin.You should post a YouTube video of it cutting when you're done.
 
GBCues said:
IMHO ALL of Darrin's machines rate a WOW!!!

I've asked a couple of questions on here about CNC machines and his answers have always been helpful.

But I'm happier that his back injury has recovered well enough for him to get back into building machines. I know from experience there are untold hours of standing on your feet and bending this way and that to get the machine put together and dialed in. He speculated after his last big build that "I must have a million hours in it!!" And after all that work, he allows detailed pictures of the finished product to be shown on here - great design ideas for those of us less experienced.

:thumbup: Darrin!!!
Click to expand...

It's people like you and me that make AZ land great . nice to post and have people enjoy it and say nice stuff , as u know the hours were vary long. as for my back it healed up nicely knock on wood no real pain. maybe I will do a youtube vid .. thanks , your post means a lot to me , as i build stuff i will always share out here . .:)
 
What no inlays, no saw dust anywhere- just kidding

looks great-The whole shop is so neat,and clean. so nice to have a bridgeport,and all the tools to build machinery. Your the man Darin. Send me a pm on the price please. Hopefully if I ask I will be able to afford one somedaysoon. When this hogs out the material- does the wood have a better chance of going south? I know with lathe's and hundreds of little cuts days wks apart the woods stay straight. thanks in advance. mark
 
I'm not a cuebuilder... I can manage a tip install. When I worked with lathes, mills, etc. I had enough experience to perform mid-level jobs, but not so much experience that the machines stopped being really cool.

On behalf of people who think rotating equipment is awesome, will you please, please, please make a video of that machine making something... even if it's just making a mess?
 
It is not untill you have some involvement in design and building equipment that you can have some appreciation of the effort required in under taking such a project.
From my experience, the neater and tidier the final result, the more effort and problem solving was involved.
A great post by the way.
Neil
 
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