Saturday, March 9, 2013

Shaft Machine !

We got a big order for both paddle boards and paddles.  While we are preparing the molds and waiting on supply deliveries, I thought it would be a good time to visit Charlie at Industrial Machine Sales.
Jonathan W. and I drove up to Alton IL. to see if we could get the shaft machine project moving forward.
Charlie was happy to help and spent 5 hours walking us through the building of the machine.
He used a lathe to cut some specialized parts we needed and had us running around his 11000 foot shop bringing him items.
After cutting various sizes of bar stock, plate metal and de-burring all the edges, we got the device pretty close to finished.
Once we retuned to St. Louis, I got the pieces mounted on my steel strong-back  (heavy steel angle iron).
The timing was good because the Carbon Fiber tow arrived today.
We are super excited about the prospects of being able to buy the raw CF tow and spin our own shafts.
Here are photos of the day with Charlie.
All Photos courtesy of Jonathan Wilmoth.



I thought our 32 inch Silver was a big band saw.  Charlie's Grob band saw (Made in Wisconsin) is a monster.
It makes him look like a Oompa Loompa. 



Lathe work







Steel band saw cutting plate

Charlie has a nice Lincoln mig welder.


Jon is distracted by something shiny.



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