Ball joint assay

 

Just tested assembly of one of the ball joint adapter plates, so far so good!

Tank Inspection Hatch Cover

 

I think this is the last part I need to machine for the hydraulic tank, although I have yet to machine the filler breather holes as I need to pressure test the tank first.

Tapping

 

Spent the afternoon tapping a total of 96 holes (without a tapping head) in the foot adapter plates, really dull but job done.

DIY Hydraulic Filtration Unit

 

I have nearly finished my DIY filtration unit, I have yet to add the power switch but otherwise its pretty much complete. I was shocked at the price of these things, starting at about £1200! So I decided to build one out of parts I already had. I did have to buy the lift pump, which cost £150, and the 10 micron filtration unit at £25 plus carious hydraulic fittings probably another £25. The fold-up pallet truck I found in a skip. The 24V 12A supply I already had. The unit works really well and doubles as a 20l drum carrier. In fact the drum is needed as the pump and filter tend to be rear heavy!

 

1.5" SAE adaptor Face Skim

 

I forgot to skim the face of the 1.5" SAE adaptor, and so decided to re-jig it and take a 0.1mm skim off the top to give a better surface finish. You can see in the video below I held the piece in an MDF negative jig, which is anything but ideal! but with such a light cut and 24,000 rpm spindle it did the job pretty well. 

Word of warning: Turn your sound down before playing the video!!

Last of the new foot adaptor plates

 

Here are the 2mm sealing plates for the new foot design. This is the last of the parts I need to machine, now I'm just waiting on the waterjet cut parts from an outsourced company. They should be with me some time next week.

Hydraulic Tank Bulk Head Flange

 

These are the last parts I have to make for the new tank design, they are just to strengthen the tank wall where the bulk head fittings pass through. I first cut them in 8mm sheet, but it was too thick for the adaptors so these are in 4mm plate.

New Tank SAE flange and Inspection Hatch

 

These are the 1.5" and 2.0" SAE flange adaptors that I need for the new Hydraulic tank. They will be welded to the tank.

Here you can see the two SAE adaptors with the tank inspection hatch flange.

Also got the pump back on today with the new aluminium bell housing plate.

More 3 axis parts

 

These are the 12mm thick adaptor plates to fix the existing ankle contact plate to the new tibia beak ring. There will be a second 2mm thick plate sandwiched between this and the sensor plate in order to seal the sensor electronics,l the only difference being the omission of the second ring of 8 x M8 tapped holes. These plates also have the ball joint attached to them with the inner ring of 4 x 8.5mm countersunk holes.

Pump Control Block Clean

 

I decided to tackle taking the control block off of the pump and seeing if there is any dirt stuck in it. It's not a job I've been looking forwards to, but actually its fairly simple to get the block off.

 

 

Unfortunately it was not simple getting the spool caps off from either end of the control block, as it seems that they have been fixed in place with some kind of thread lock!! So that is the end of that, I blew out the orifice with an air line and put it back on the pump. Wast of time.