I resolved to spend as little money on tools as possible until Christmas, because some members of my family had talked about purchasing together some tools that were out of my range.
Still, I could not resist getting a few things so that I could continue to make progress. I bought a ring stretcher to serve as a temporary “nano-scale” rolling mill for earring wire, based on the suggestion of an Orchidian.
I also found a bargain on Craigslist for a Gryphon C Series Diamond Bandsaw in excellent condition. I couldn’t resist getting it because then I could save my family over $200 in unnecessary shopping on my behalf.
One last thing I needed, was a “pro-tem” powered lathe… anything at all that would fill a several time gap until such time as I could somehow obtain a Taig Micro II Lathe.
So I spent $40 in miscellanous junk over the past week from the Navajo road-side flea-markets, which together I hoped could become a lathe with both a little ingenuity and a bit of Tony Stark-style determination.
My current patient of the day is a Craftsman electric drill that I bought in unknown condition for $2 USD. I took the screws out… and was not pleased what I saw of the innards. This drill uses an AC/DC universal motor operated by two field electromagnets as the stator and with the rotor receiving power through a pair of carbon brushes. One of the brush housings was intact, the other was shattered.
But since I have a LOT more time than money, I thought I could salvage the drill parts to make a lathe motor.. better than then spending almost $70 for a used drill at a pawnshop!
So today’s task was to rebuild the carbon brush housing so that it could contain the spring and the brush, similarly to its intact counterpart.
The pictures below show how I did it!!
The reason why the Craftsman drill I bought at the flea market for $2 wasn't working...
I want to rebuild the broken brush into something like this intact one...
I don't have plastic.. and I'd rather not use up my tiny supply of aluminum.. but I have these!
The brush spring COULD fit into channel made from available brass corner stock, if the stock is trimmed...
A pair of brass corner channels are soldered together with copper-clad printed circuit board as the base.
Two sets of brass channel pairs ready to join lengthwise...
Soldering both sets of soldered brass corner pairs into a spring enclosure.
Almost done.. but we need to restrict spring travel, otherwise we have a jack in the box, not a carbon brush!
And a difference which makes no difference... is no difference!
