The shaft machine "My favorite Machine"

hillscues

hillscues

American Craftsmanship
Silver Member
Here is my second machine I built. My first was a little crude but worked well. This one I went all out on let me explain. It has two 24-volt motors, speed controllers and power transformers. I searched the country high and low for such a motor, they didn?t exist to go from 0- 400 rpm and be small with lots of tork. I have found a company to work with me, I paid a pretty penny though. My first one ran on a variable speed drill it worked pretty well. These motors are silent and strong and don?t even get warm, the guy that sold them to me said they will last forever. I think I believe him after using them now for some time. I have an internal spring that can be changed on a flick of a hat, soft spring for finish hard spring for dowels. Linier slide rail, automatic stop switch, easy ready up and down with a dial indicator very very accurate. My custom shaft taper with a custom bar, 60 tooth forest blade with a custom flat top grind, balanced pulleys on the table saw with a special linkable v belt, 5 inch saw blade, silencer on the side of the blade, dust port and dust bag on bottom of saw. To sum it up its awesome 2 min 20 sec rough cut, 3 min 30 sec finish cut, and its so quite I can still hear the radio. I can take a shaft out right after cut and almost play pool with it, that?s right it cuts that smooth. When a customer comes by I like to demo it, there always blown away. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy thank Shari and Darrin
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WOW!!
I like the 80/20 plus pillow blocks configuration.
That is some serious machine!!:eek:
positive rep DH.
tnx for sharing
 
That's a super nice machine and I'm sure you're proud of it as you should be. I like the cue butt handle too!!!!!!!!!

Thanks also for sharing!!!!!


Ray
 
hillscues said:
Here is my second machine I built. My first was a little crude but worked well. This one I went all out on let me explain. It has two 24-volt motors, speed controllers and power transformers. I searched the country high and low for such a motor, they didn?t exist to go from 0- 400 rpm and be small with lots of tork. I have found a company to work with me, I paid a pretty penny though. My first one ran on a variable speed drill it worked pretty well. These motors are silent and strong and don?t even get warm, the guy that sold them to me said they will last forever. I think I believe him after using them now for some time. I have an internal spring that can be changed on a flick of a hat, soft spring for finish hard spring for dowels. Linier slide rail, automatic stop switch, easy ready up and down with a dial indicator very very accurate. My custom shaft taper with a custom bar, 60 tooth forest blade with a custom flat top grind, balanced pulleys on the table saw with a special linkable v belt, 5 inch saw blade, silencer on the side of the blade, dust port and dust bag on bottom of saw. To sum it up its awesome 2 min 20 sec rough cut, 3 min 30 sec finish cut, and its so quite I can still hear the radio. I can take a shaft out right after cut and almost play pool with it, that?s right it cuts that smooth. When a customer comes by I like to demo it, there always blown away. Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy thank Shari and Darrin
shaftmachine001.jpg
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shaftmachine002-1.jpg
[/IMG]
shaftmachine003.jpg
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shaftmachine004.jpg
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shaftmachine005.jpg
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shaftmachine006.jpg
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Excellent machine and excellent pictures. I love it when some one uses their brain to see a problem, come up with an idea to correct that problem and then build that machine. So many people on this forum do not want to think at all and just want to ask a question and sit back and wait for some one to answer that question or show pictures of some one else's equipment so that they can copy. If a person hasn't got the intellect to figure out what is needed to solve simple problems or are to lazy to try and come up with ideas I believe they are trying to get into the wrong business. Today's generation wants and expects everything to be given to them with full instructions included. I think the brain may end up like the appendix, a useless organ in modern man.

Dick
 
Shaft Cutter

hillscues said:
Here is my second machine I built. My first was a little crude but worked well.
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Just go ahead and send your old one to my house:D

Sweet machine!
 
Yes, geared-head motors solve a lot of problems for low speed high torque applications. It looks like a very solid machine, well done. I love the look of that diamond plate too.

Dave
 
i bet the 60 tooth blade cuts awfully smooth with the shaft turning 400rpm.all you need now is the 100 tooth blade and you won't need sandpaper anymore.
 
masonh said:
i bet the 60 tooth blade cuts awfully smooth with the shaft turning 400rpm.all you need now is the 100 tooth blade and you won't need sandpaper anymore.
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I heard 60 tooth works better b/c the 100 tooth one has too close of cutters.
 
Alex has both and the 100 tooth is smoother without a doubt.his set up is very similar to the one above,but the shaft doesn't spin as fast and it is near as nice looking.mostly we just use it for hard to cut woods that the CNC cutters might tear.the align-rite cuts most woods plenty smooth.
 
the lead screw and the spindle both are on variable speed. Im running the lead screw between 100-200 rpm. I have found spindle speed to run about the same speed as the lead screw speed maybe a little faster. i have found slower is better. havent tried 100 tooth blade everyone in the past said 60 was the best. thanks for all the great comments thanks darrin
 
hillscues said:
the lead screw and the spindle both are on variable speed. Im running the lead screw between 100-200 rpm. I have found spindle speed to run about the same speed as the lead screw speed maybe a little faster. i have found slower is better. havent tried 100 tooth blade everyone in the past said 60 was the best. thanks for all the great comments thanks darrin
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On my first couple of shaft machines I used 10" blades with 60 teeth as was recommended to me from a blade company in Chicago that was supplying blades for these machines to Kershenbrock, Bender and the other cue makers in that area who were using these machines. I asked about an 80 tooth and was told by them that a couple of people had ordered them but went back to the 60 tooth as the 80 didn't cut quite as well. I use 12" blades on my machines now and use 72 teeth as I figure that is about the same ratio as a 10" 60 tooth.

Dick
 
I have a quick question regarding finish on my shaft machines. I have 2 identical machines that make about a 6 minute pass with 80 tooth blades. One for butts the other for shafts. I can adust the pass speed but the shafts spin at 100 rpms and thats a fixed speed. Im still getting some pitting on the butts. If I really slow down the speed of the pass, I can get a pretty clean cut. Im wondering if my rotation speed is a bit to slow. I noticed that Dick's speed is 150 rpms and others faster yet. I hope I dont have to get different motors for the shaft rotation speed. Thanks for your suggestions.

Mark
 
kiinstructor said:
I have a quick question regarding finish on my shaft machines. I have 2 identical machines that make about a 6 minute pass with 80 tooth blades. One for butts the other for shafts. I can adust the pass speed but the shafts spin at 100 rpms and thats a fixed speed. Im still getting some pitting on the butts. If I really slow down the speed of the pass, I can get a pretty clean cut. Im wondering if my rotation speed is a bit to slow. I noticed that Dick's speed is 150 rpms and others faster yet. I hope I dont have to get different motors for the shaft rotation speed. Thanks for your suggestions.

Mark
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The slower the RPMs - the slower the linear speed needs to be or you will feel a barber pole effect on the finished piece. Butts can turn much faster than shafts as they won't whip like a thin shaft. I'm not sure what you mean by "pitting"? If you are talking about small cut marks then that is not speed related but blade alignment. Since the butt has a larger radius than a shaft alignment is more critical so that the edge of the teeth aren't making marks. You want the blades teeth act as small planes against the surface. Building these machines are a simple task but tuning them can be a killer.

Dick
 
The pitting maybe grain tearing.Check with an indicator that all the teeth are running true and concentric.
Set the dial indicator with a piece of brass shim between the stylis and the blade tip. Be carefull not to micro chip the blade, Thats why the brass shim.
Neil Lickfold
 
Cuemaster98 said:
So, how much will a shaft machine like this set me back?? Look awesome.

Regards,
Duc.
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I didn't know it was for sale.
I'm guessing 3 grand in parts and a lot of labor of love.
 
JoeyInCali said:
I didn't know it was for sale.
I'm guessing 3 grand in parts and a lot of labor of love.
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That is a very nice looking, well built machine but I sriously doubt he has any amount near that invested in materials. If you shop around most parts and material can be picked up very reasonably but making and fitting the parts is time consuming and then it must be tuned which sometimes is very aggravating in it self. If I, myself, would have went to the trouble of building as nice a machine as this one appears to be I would have had to make it CNC.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
That is a very nice looking, well built machine but I sriously doubt he has any amount near that invested in materials. If you shop around most parts and material can be picked up very reasonably but making and fitting the parts is time consuming and then it must be tuned which sometimes is very aggravating in it self. If I, myself, would have went to the trouble of building as nice a machine as this one appears to be I would have had to make it CNC.

Dick
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True that Dick.
CNC would have been nice. Just input the F rate, and control the x and Y ( or it's really Z I think ). Limit switches at the ends.
But, I'd still take this machine.:)
 
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