Help with making a physical item

[Catprog]

I am looking at how to make an item for my solar collector.

http://img837.imageshack.us/img837/2858/lfrthingy.png

Text description:

1) a square section
2) a round section
3) another square section

I can get section 3(get a square steel rod from a supplier) and
section 2(use a lathe). I do not now how to get section 1 though.

Any ideas? or a better way to make sections 2 and 3.

[Lemming .]

Dimensions would be a big plus.

[Catprog]

Dimensions are flexible but the one I used for the image are 10mm (1st
square),10mm radius, 14mm (2nd square)

[Terry Dawson]

What physical properties does it need to possess? Does it need to be metal?
How many do you need?

You could 3D print it pretty readily. The shape lends itself to
casting if you wanted to do that.

Careful hacksawing would do section 3 if it doesn't need to be very precise.

Terry

[Catprog]

It needs to be precise as it controls the positing of a mirror.

Plastic could work but it is going to be outside and it needs to last.

I need 20.

[Terry Dawson]

On Fri, Jun 8, 2012 at 2:06 PM, Catprog <cat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It needs to be precise as it controls the positing of a mirror.
>
> Plastic could work but it is going to be outside and it needs to last.
>
> I need 20.

Ok, 20 and the need for precision makes manual production annoying.

You could possibly print them and use the prints as moulds for
casting. But you'd need access to someone with casting experience.

It might be easier to find someone with the right type of sawing
jig/machine to make the eight cuts necessary to take your hand-turned
stage1+stage2 and produce stage3.

Terry

[Lemming .]

It could be done on the mill at the hackerspace, it wouldn't take that long with something that small either.

Could be done in steel, alu, plastic or wood. Just depends on what suits your needs best.

[Kean Maizels]

Buy some square stock that matches the dimension of the largest end.
Use a mill if needed to re-size.
Use a mill to cut the smaller square section flats (it helps they are
referenced to the faces of the large square section)
Use a lathe to turn down the middle section to the correct diameter.
Trim to length (mill/lathe parting tool/hacksaw).

I think the middle section is 14mm diameter (7mm radius) based on your
sketch.

Kean

[Lemming .]

We have a rotary table on our mill, so you can quite easily do all the required cuts on one machine.

[Kean Maizels]

Even better!

 

Using a 4^th axis on a CNC mill is another option, and probably how I’d set it up for a run of 20.

[Lemming .]

Manual, not CNC... yet.