RE: Making toroids

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Andy Cleary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <cleara-at-twcny.rr-dot-com>

	Hi there!  I too am in your situation (big machine shop = make good
toroid!), and what I've been working on is metal spinning.  I've
actually spent the last 3 semesters of school for 3 hours a week every
week trying to build the appropriate apparatus to perform metal
spinning on a standard metal lathe.  Actually, all you need is a piece
to put in the tailstock of the lathe that will spin and press a sheet
of metal against a spinning wooden chuck (half torus, or half sphere,
etc.) at it's pinnacle, allowing you to then "pry" the metal sheet
down from that pinnacle upon the chuck using a specially fitted post
on the lathe.  It kind of sounds complicated (due to my poor
description), but it really isn't.  The bulk of my time down there has
been turning down a piece of steel to correctly fit into the
tailstock, turning steel is slow going, especially when going about
1/2" depth!  Besides that, it seems pretty easy.  I figure one or two
more sessions, and I'll be all finished!  To assist anyone interested
in metal spinning, I scanned a few pages of a really good metal
spinning book onto my website along with a few good links, the url
being http://www.rpi.edu/~cleara/infoarea/spinning/spinning.htm .  I
believe there are also some books on metal spinning available at
Lindsay's Technical Books, www.lindsaybks-dot-com .
	And let me say, when those toroids are spun, they are the most
beautiful toploads I've ever personally seen.  After first seeing John
Freau's spun toroids, I was amazed!  I'm not counting on it, but I'd
like to get 'em like that some day. Check out
http://hometown.aol-dot-com/futuret/page1.html for a nice finished
product.  Good luck, I hope I've been of assistance!

-Andy C.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 8:04 PM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Making toroids


Original poster: "tmoore by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<tmoore-at-erie-dot-net>

   Hi everyone I have been trying to make a toroid made out of
aluminum or
some thing similar. I have access to my schools wood and metal shops,
so
what I planed on doing is to take a block of wood and spin it down on
the
wood lathe in to a toroid shape.  After I was finished doing that I
was
going to make a mold and cast it in the foundry.  That should work out
pretty well, but the thing is that it might be heavy and the surface
might
not be perfect so I will have to buff it up a ton.  Some of the
machines I
have access to are some milling machines, 1/2 a dozen metal and 1 wood
lathe,  a mig and a arc welder, a band saw, a planer, a jointer, a
table
saw, a power miter box and a foundry as well as a few others.  So if
any of
you have tips and suggestions on how I could go about fabricating a
good
toroid I am all ears.  Thank you very much.


Sincerely,
Nolan Moore