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Well done, very impressive

I have now rebuilt mine out of 1/2" MDF. 3/4" would have been preferable but I already had 1/2". I made mine much like the one in the Composite Craft pictures. The top piece arm which swivels up and down unfortunately is not acrylic on mine (or a suspension arm!) but rather MDF. Maybe in the future it'll get upgraded so I can see through it. After studying the CC pictures I decided that the pin should not attach directly to the arm. For it to line up would require some fine machining and I don't have that at my disposal. I am attaching the pin to a piece of 1/4" flat iron. The arm has slots in it which the bolts in the iron protrude though. Since the slots are larger than the bolts, I can move the iron and hence the pin until it lines up with the cutting bit. Then just tighten it all down. No machining required. The iron piece isn't done yet. Hopefully I'll get it done before the new collet arrives this week. I'll get some pics of the whole thing once I know it works. If it doesn't work well the last thing I want is anyone copying the design!

Lol! I hear ya. I can't wait to get my new setup back, the larger pin diameter like CC was using should sturdy it up a lot and I will be trimming the front of the control arm off for better viewing of the part being cut.

Wow this is really cool... Could this be done also with harder materials like aluminum?

The limitation would be the bit and the material your cuttings thickness, as well as the speed your trying to cut. That said, I would not prefer this method when it comes to aluminum, I'd much rather find a CNC setup

aluminum would work pretty nicely, I've done it to trim up some bellcranks I made like a team losi setup. I don't have a pin router, just the router sticking up out of the deck so I can hand make parts with radii. It is much noiser however, and you definitely have to be cautious with your depth of cut. the rotary file you need is a double cut/coarse cut for non-ferrous materials. you also end up with quite a nice collection of little aluminum slivers.

Great thread. I love your set up.

Oh yeah just went and picked up the new head assembly from the machinist, mocking it up now and modifying the arm a little. Going precision this time, and a double ended pin so I can do 3/32 and 1/8 by flipping the pin. Machinist hates me, apparently a press fit 3/32 hole is not the easiest and ended up breaking the first drill blank off in it while pressing it in. Had to machine a new shaft. Doh! At least now I have a spare 1/8 pin haha

Here is a teaser pic of the new head, solid aluminum billet with a steel shaft and brass thumbscrew

Looks good. I was thinking about redoing my setup with a machined pin but instead of a press fit I was going to have the 1/8" pin machined from a 5/8" threaded rod. That way I can change the height really easily. Every time I think I've got a usable setup, I see a better way to do it. It's getting frustrating!

Looks great Jeff!

fredswain wrote:Looks good. I was thinking about redoing my setup with a machined pin but instead of a press fit I was going to have the 1/8" pin machined from a 5/8" threaded rod. That way I can change the height really easily. Every time I think I've got a usable setup, I see a better way to do it. It's getting frustrating!

I agree! There are many ways to get to the same end. I got tired of redoing it so this time I kept the tolerances tight!

Here is the end result. Much more adjustable due to slotting of the arm, cut off the front of the arm that was in the way, and a little tweaking to get everything level. It's a beast now, copied a rear tower and measured the holes, it's more accurate than my harbor freight digital caliper. Lol. Did I just brag about that?

and again, well done

Very nice! It looks like you've got it figured out. The correct collet came the other day but I haven't had a chance to work on the rest. I'll get there someday.

How large is that square stock? Is it more than an inch? Your pin also looks nice and thick. What diameter is it? I don't think it's going to flex!