REVIEWS DEALS BIKESHOPS TRAILS

Groovy Baby Thanks Odtexas

5862 Views 52 Replies 25 Participants Last post by bravellir, Mar 2, 2011

troutie-mtb

Discussion Starter · Feb 25, 2011

Having watched Odtexas for an age doing his bit with the table saw but having a lathe and manual milling machine I never really thought about the ease of using a table saw if a tad on the dangerous side maybe .

and not wanting to be a copycat of his cases carried on standing at the mill for hours cutting grooves in solid billet .

so when the offer of this cheap table saw came along £10 but it had no blade I paid the guy and brought it home fully convinced it would be a duff one but a fuse replacement and £25 for a nice new blade saw me with a working finger removing tool

the easy way would be to make a rip quide and groove some stock just like OT`s
so started thinking I wanted grooves around the square and in a repeatable fashion
so here is my method for doing a few cheap housings quickly .

so got me some offcuts of plywood and started playing around first up cut a couple of strips to fit in the 2 grooves in the table and bond them to a flat lump of ply .

put it on the table and cut a slot for the blade .

and now on the top a couple of lumps of straight timber with some 3 mm holes drilled through for some pegs which are the pins from pop rivets
drilled at 5 mm centres

set the blade to the required depth of cut and voila nice grooved cases .

See less See more

5

1 - 20 of 53 Posts

odtexas

· #2 · Feb 25, 2011

I am just happy to be a bad influence around here.

I have been hoping someone here would just cut alot of light bodies like mine and put them up for sale.
So feel free to copy/modify any of the lights that I have made.
I know I have learned alot from you and incorporated some of your ideas in my lights over the years. :thumbsup:
The table saw can quickly cut alot of lights and a jig will make them uniform, if not alot safer.:thumbsup:
That round light I made last week was also made on the table saw. Your jig might be able to do a round body fairly easily.
I just hold the round stock down on the center of the blade and slowly rotate the stock grooving it all the way around. Not better than a lathe, but I bet its alot faster.....
Have fun and looking forward to what you come up with.

See less See more

Arek

· #3 · Feb 25, 2011

That's ingenious Chris!
Do you figure it's better to cut more grooves around the case and get possibly more area, rather than go lenghtways and get some airflow in those grooves? Or is it just that it's easier to work with that stock turned sideways?

BTW, sent you an email back.

Arek

mattthemuppet

· #4 · Feb 25, 2011

you truly are an Englishman in his Shed troutie, I take my hat off to you!

BrianMc

· #5 · Feb 25, 2011

Nice adaptation, Chris. For me, a bit safer, I think.:thumbsup:

Seems like you can do fins arround all sides with the tube stock in this orientation if they are across the air flow or on two or three sides and cut holes for reginas or lenses of your choice ande connectors (2 sides of fins) if you like your fins in the direction of airflow. A light's length piece to cut four sides the other way would be bit trickier but the stops to get spacing would help a lot.

So far, Marwi housings are doing it for me (cheap!), but if the Iris without the holder had not fit, I was trying this first, then the layer method. Nice to have a doable alternative.

troutie-mtb

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 25, 2011

Arek said:
That's ingenious Chris!
Do you figure it's better to cut more grooves around the case and get possibly more area, rather than go lenghtways and get some airflow in those grooves? Or is it just that it's easier to work with that stock turned sideways?

BTW, sent you an email back.

Arek

You have it correct 2 reasons one was that Odtexas does lengthways fins and I wanted it to be different I guess
and you cant have enough surface if you want to go to 3 amps

MM that a big email

just run a couple off to see how quick Bit noisy though .

Cheers
Matt I just like tinkering in the man cave :thumbsup:

See less See more

P220C

· #7 · Feb 25, 2011

:thumbsup:

savagemann

· #8 · Feb 25, 2011

Great little jig idea there Trout!!!!
Looking good.

SBJohn

· #9 · Feb 25, 2011

Troutie,
That is a very clever idea/jig. I have learned lots from you and others on this forum. Thanks for sharing.:thumbsup:

troutie-mtb

Discussion Starter · #10 · Feb 25, 2011

Here is a little video of it in action

I am dead pleased how easy it works

Andy13

· #11 · Feb 25, 2011

Wow, how cool is that! It makes me want reconsider which direction my fins run. The general opinion seems to be it doesn't matter as when the light is moving it will cool fine and when not moving, all that matters is surface area. Correct?

HEY HEY ITS HENDO

· #12 · Feb 25, 2011

finger removing tool......lol
great vid there troutie!!....and that jig is ingenious!!

klynk

· #13 · Feb 25, 2011

Troutie, new cases look really cool! even without the ano.

El34

· #14 · Feb 25, 2011

Nice job Chris
Cool video!

troutie-mtb

Discussion Starter · #15 · Feb 25, 2011

Cheers guys it real satisfying when a project works well

had a work out and the little case goes from 8 square inches to 12.72 square inches of surface

emu26

· #16 · Feb 25, 2011

Thanks Chris.

I can't tell you how many times I have pondered over how to make a jig to do my compound saw cuts a little more uniformly and that is just so brilliant.

Previously I have been coating the stock with marking pen then scratching visible lines into the marking pen at the required spacings, and cutting freehand. Needless to say it's never very accurate.

I'll be keeping the compound saw, I like my fingers where they are, but it'll soon be getting a jig

bravellir

· #17 · Feb 25, 2011

The jig was a really good idea. Suddenly is not as scary as that

What thickness is that tube and how deep are the groves?

troutie-mtb

Discussion Starter · #18 · Feb 25, 2011

bravellir said:
The jig was a really good idea. Suddenly is not as scary as that

What thickness is that tube and how deep are the groves?

the tube is 1 inch square or 1 inch by 2 inch the wall thickness is swg 10 or 3.25 mm

the grooves are nominally 2 mm deep

on a finger removal basis I did try 30 years ago with a power saw to remove my thumb
so using these now always give me the shivers when I get close to a spinning blade
lots of stitches and still no feeling in it 30 years later

See less See more

emu26

· #19 · Feb 25, 2011

I'd blame the loss of feeling on that "glass almost empty" sitting on the corner of the table.

BrianMc

· #20 · Feb 25, 2011

+1 Great video of the jig in action, Chis!

Andy13 said:
Wow, how cool is that! It makes me want reconsider which direction my fins run. The general opinion seems to be it doesn't matter as when the light is moving it will cool fine and when not moving, all that matters is surface area. Correct?

Both directions of fins are supposedly the same or very close in a post of a thread here somewhere that I once read digging for cooling information. You need deep narrow valleys beween fins and low airspeeds to get an difference. We use shallow wide valleys and try not to go too slow.

So that means it's more a matter what you like the looks of and have the time and patience to make.

1 - 20 of 53 Posts

This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.