Perfect Timing (with the Marble Machine X)

if you're here just to see some lovely chips fly and stuff being made you can jump to the time code right here but this story is much more than just about making something it's about the importance of perfect timing and you dear viewer are an important part arguably the most important part of this story buckle up and stick with me here I promise you all of this will make sense and come together in the end a couple of years ago and Martin started making the marble machine X it became a tradition for my wife and I to watch the vendor garden Wednesday's there was one video in particular I really enjoyed dropping the ball precisely number 52 which thoroughly goes through all of the engineering challenges and potential solutions for the precise timing of the dropping of the marbles this video impressed me so much that is the only comment I've ever left on a marble mini X video even though I've watched all of them little did I know I would eventually be helping to solve a related problem well it's not obvious in this video there's a problem here that Martin isn't talking about specifically he wants to keep his hand at 6 o'clock when the balls hit regardless of the beats per minute of the music at the time I was pretty much at youtube nobody maybe 3,000 subscribers of my year old channel a few videos later testing the mechanical rhythm machine number 55 the timing problems were discussed in even more detail specifically how different beats per minute put the rhythm section out of sync with the marbles in that video Martin shows how he can compensate for the delay by adjusting the rhythm section I rotating it forwards or backwards relative with the rest the machine to keep the timing tight and that's what had happened on the very same day that video was released in a case of incredible timing my YouTube channel started to explode in the next three weeks I would climb for about 3000 to an amazing 75,000 subscribers while the explosion in subscribers is amazing enough timing had another important side effect they started putting me in touch with other much much larger youtubers perhaps none larger than Destin from smarter every day who suddenly shows up in my inbox and wants to chat and another stroke of great timing there was an event he was organizing thinker con happening just a few weeks later and he asked me to come and be a creator to the public thinker Khan was a one event evening we've got to come and meet your favorite YouTube stars what the public didn't know was that there's actually a lot of time for the assembled youtubers to meet and greet at mixers and discussion panel and it was an offhand remark perfectly timed in hindsight that I made during a discussion that Martin was leading after it he approached me and asked me if I wanted to build a part for the marble machine X to solve a problem he was having you can only imagine how happy and excited I was he wanted to make it to the handle would always be at 6 o'clock on the beat that the rhythm section would always be adjusted to keep tight sync with the marbles dropping some kind of adjustable clutch would do the trick I thought once back in the San Francisco Bay Area I got to work and this is the story of making it first I had to design it my goals were that it had to be robust and strong quick to adjust with no tools highly repeatable the default position should be locked and safe and that it had no pieces sticking off it that could catch on something it should also be easy to adjust in dark environments and finally it should look good ok let's get started first I got a nice big piece of brass stock I'm gonna make this sliding ring first [Music] and wait what how do those marks get there well you need to wait for the montage after making the marks I cut it off with the cold sauce because this is gonna slide back and forth on the splines that need to bore it out to 55 millimeters and [Music] exactly now I've left some extra material on here both in terms of the outside diameter and the length this is firstly because I'm gonna have to clamp it more times than editing up the outside and why believe me on some extra lengths will make more sense later both of these will be turned to final diameter later in the process but the cutting of the actual splines is in the montage you're gonna have to wait a little bit more for that for cutting the splines I had to make a custom cutter for that that I've made off-camera it uses a threading insert so it has a 60 degree cutting edge that I know is pretty perfect and it also means that in the process if I have to replace that cutting edge I can just you know pop this out and turn it around to do that I cut the angles on my large brown and sharp swivel vise that I have that thing is an absolute beast but it's a great tool for this and you'll see that I made this piece on the back here that's a separate piece of steel and that's to give it support because what happens is when it wants to it wants to turn when it's cutting and it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on this very thin piece that's right here and so I reinforced it with that and I think this is going to work really well now I'm making the splines the ring will slide on I love turning brass but it has one big downside it tends to throw a stream of tiny chips into your face so because I have to turn down a lot of brass here I'm putting the cutter upside down on my holder and running the lathe backwards this will make the chips go downwards which is much better when there's a lot to do [Music] and ah what the the splines have already been cut well okay guide to the montage sometime hey Martin yeah well I know you've got some better music we can throw under the montage [Music] you [Music] I made a dummy shape that it fits beautifully now to do the same with the flanges that will go on the ends everything on the marble machine X's in five so I'm enjoying five holes here for Christmas I promise I'm getting myself a proper set of brass drill bits so this is an operation that I had to think very far ahead of time how I was going to handle when the clutch is assembled I want to make sure that these lines line up when it's indexed to the proper amount if I was to just drill the matching holes and tap them on this side it means that this could end up like that or that and not be lined up so when I made this ring I intentionally made it a little too tall when this is done this will sit on here and it will sit a little bit less than flush but for right now it sticks up a little bit and that's good because it means that it can't hold this other piece pretty firmly there especially when I put this very close fitting mandrel in the middle what I'm going to do is on the lathe I'm gonna make a basically a transfer punch tool that I can use in these holes to mark this gear so I then know where to drill and tap it so I quickly made up this piece which is just a piece of steel at the point on it I'm going to use this as a punch to transfer the hole to the splines so we know where to pick them up and drill them take this and I'll line it up that matches on all the other sides carefully put my punch in like that okay and that made a nice punch mark in this so I'm gonna go ahead and use that to then drill and tap too so you probably can't see this but if I bring the quill down I have the same tool that I used to make the punch mark and now it goes straight into that so I know that I have the quill indexed correctly with the hole [Applause] [Music] with that out of the way I can finally turn the ring down to the proper length I need to broach a slot so the clutch can be key to the shaft for the marled machine ex I only have Imperial sized brooches and keys so although almost everything on the broad machine ex isn't metric I did sneak in some Imperial dimensions in here [Music] so to figure out how to index it this way I had the idea to use some gauge blocks so the key is in there by using the gauge blocks up against it I can get it squared up and I can tighten it and then I can take these out and I can come over to the other side and I can check that it's a snug fit there as well so now I know that this is oriented splitting the difference between these two sides [Music] look at that bang on Center absolutely perfect now that all the parts are done is time to turn them to final diameter I made a collar for the temporary shaft to fit into then with the parts on I'm using the tail stock to squeeze everything together I experimented with many ways to try and hold the ring in place but hot glue who worked the best a light champ around the edges and it looks great [Music] so there we have it looks beautiful I can truly say that this is the one part I have probably been dreading the most which is to use these punches and put the numbers on this so I literally just sent some pictures to Martin and had a discussion with him and figured out how he wanted to lay this out so this is currently in what would be the zero position and I'm not sure if Martin is going to advance this side or this side but either way like you know that would advance ten for example or that would then be twenty he's gonna have to figure out which way he wants to do it but we did agree on the numbering so I just practiced a whole bunch on a sample piece that I have and I think I have it down and this is one of those places where if I mess up there's a little bit of room for recovery I can probably take the outside diameter down again a little bit but I really don't want to do that okay okay not terrible but not great okay it's definitely easier on this side this side is a little bit of wiggle to it and it makes it a bit harder but we're gonna roll with it it was at this point I wisely decided I was not going to be able to stamp the part to anyone's satisfaction so I called upon the expert services of Marlon hazel who was the very last hand engraver in San Francisco she does beautiful work and the clutch is no exception look how awesome those numbers are I [Music] want the ring to be in the locked position by default so I used spring steel cut and then bent to shape with heat to make some really strong Springs [Music] installed the springs there's only three of them because that is more than enough to keep them engaged [Music] remember that one of my requirements that it had to look good let's do some polishing this is a very similar technique to my acid etching micrometer dials video check that one out for more details the main difference here is I'm using simichrome for the polish I will say though if I wish I spent any more time in this project anywhere it would have been here in the polishing and painting of the parts I was really trying to push to get this part shipped out so it could be in Martin's hands in time for ketchup week so I only spent one evening on the polishing and painting and while parts of it looked great I think it could have been even better [Music] [Music] [Music] for the painting I was going to try a different technique with something called cold enamel which is essentially a form of epoxy resin even though I used it before this time it wasn't really working out so in a semi panic I resorted to Sharpie paint pen which worked okay but not great it's not shown here but if I let the paint dry a little bit longer it actually comes off really easily and cleanly the rest of the dial didn't take that long at all actually [Music] and that's it all done and ready to ship to Martin and ready to be a critical part of keeping perfect timing on the marble machine X and while that's true there is another kind of perfect timing here and that perfect timing is you if it wasn't for the support and appreciation I've had from so many people at exactly the right time an incredible sequence of events wouldn't have happened which led me to making this part which in turn is to provide perfect timing for the marble machine X I am exceptionally humbled and proud to have been a part of this and I thank you for helping to make it happen all I can say is your timing was perfect and I'm so happy for it this isn't the last connection I've made and there's more exciting stuff to come in the future thank you very very much for watching subscribing and commenting it really has enabled things beyond my wildest dreams thanks again I'll see you next time

Channel: Machine Thinking

Views: 1,486,248

Keywords: Marble Machine X, timing, machining, home shop, science, history, metal, polishing

Id: s02m616b5AU

Length: 20min 30sec (1230 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2019