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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    1,754
    Country: Wales

    Default Miniature Working Demo Vault Door Model

    Here's my latest, started this one back in the 1990s and tbh it would probably have been quicker to totally start again- rust was so bad I ended up spending just as long re-skimming the door and re-making a lot of the smaller parts. It's still nowhere near finished but at least it's now finally at a stage that's worth some photos.
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    Loads taken throughout the various stages which I'll try and add over the next week or so.

    Door is fully working with geared rod-driven boltwork, also working on a tiny Lever safe lock to make it key-locking. It will eventually have a fully geared pressure mechanism (3-bars, 120 degree spacing) with scale 6-spoke Chatwood style hand wheels, but all that's way off for now...

  2. #2

    Default Wow!

    Hey Huw!

    That is a very impressive work and I am looking up to this quality. That is something I have to work on to maybe achieve some day in the future So kudos to this masterpiece of yours.

    As far as I can see it you made the door out of steel, right? Did you machine all the nuts or did you buy them? What about the measurements of the door? Are you going to make a frame for the door (please say yes, please say yes )

    Cheers and I am really looking forward to tons of pictures and infos

    Maik

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    1,754
    Country: Wales

    Default

    Hello there Maik, thanks for all your comments. You're spot on- it is indeed mild steel, and yes I did make the threaded studs and the nuts from hexagon bar. But, I have to admit I'm not happy with their appearance, so will be making new bolts to replace them.
    I had planned to give them a final finish back on the lathe and then polish them up, but I'll probably make some nice acorned styled hexagon bolts with pointed tops instead.

    My problem is I originally set out to make it an ornate American style, with a lot of engine-turned brass and polished brass bolts etc. Since then I'd changed my mind back to a more bland and conservative 'all steel' Chatwood sort of look, but tbh, I'm part edging back towards the ornate American style...

    This door is modular construction in that any of the main parts could be swapped out for parts of a different style. This is the first I'd made like this and why I didn't apply it to all the others I'll never know! But it does mean I can at least turn it back into an ornate American style in minimal time if needed.

    Theres still some temporary parts on it- the cheese-head brass screws on the 'big-ends' of the connecting rods are only for testing the boltwork, I've got some brass hexagon bar to make matching bolts for those. They'll have stepped 'shoulders' to act as bearings for the rods to pivot on. Likewise the smaller end 'gudgeon pin' screws fitted in the bolts- they will also be smaller hexagon brass with smooth bearing surfaces.

    Can't trust the feed dials on my bigger lathe to make the really small precision parts, so will be back to machining those on my 'baby' Emco lathe indoors.

    The bearings for the main drive gears, pinion gear and drive spindles are all made from Leaded Bronze bar, again all turned-up on the little Emco for precision. Will probably also change the main spur gear to a roller race, I have one or two that I plan to modify for a silky smooth fit.

    No frame planned for it at all sorry Maik, made this as a "hands on demo" to stand upright on a heavy turned base. It's always been 100% about the door and boltwork for me.
    I'll enjoy making the front of the door with scale brass hand wheels (very fine silver soldering), the geared pressure bars etc, but the surrounding frame and all the concrete walls/vault etc that goes behind it doesn't interest me really tbh. Sorry :-(

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    1,754
    Country: Wales

    Default

    Here's the bare door 'shell' and with the locking bolts fitted.
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  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Wisconsin
    Posts
    147
    Country: United States

    Default

    I may know how to paint a safe. I learned how to lay gold leaf. I can even make "some" parts on my lathe/mill combo. But, these pictures make me feel totally inadequate!

  6. #6

    Default

    Hello Huw,

    I see that you are very routined in machining those little doors and the precision of the parts is really good!

    How are you going to make the pressure system? With worm gears? What lathes do you use? What model from Emco? What is your bigger lathe? I am sure you are using a dividing head for the bolt work, right? What measurements does the door have?

    Your model motivates me even more to continue with my door

    Best

    Maik

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    1,754
    Country: Wales

    Default

    Thanks again 00247 and Maik.

    I devised my own improvised method for dividing out the bolt holes on this one. My division plate is for the headstock of my other Hobbymat lathe which is permanently set up for horizontal milling with chuck and drawbar through the main spindle, so no easy way of using it without a lot of work. Plus it only allows headstock divisions, it's not actually a dividing 'head'.

    This door is pretty big for my machines at just over 150mm diameter (about 6 inches), so I set it up directly in place of the toolpost on the bigger lathes cross slide, perfectly on centre height and perfectly over the centreline through the machine.
    Drilling the first pilot hole from the headstock gives a division reference to spin it around 180 degrees, and with a mating pin located from the tail stock chuck the opposing hole can be drilled from the headstock with good alignment- near perfect 180! Between each pair of holes I located 90 degrees from the last hole by fitting long extension pins and doing it the old fashioned way with a steel protractor!

    About the lathes, if you look at the 4-jaw chuck on the front right of the chip tray on the bigger 460 lathe, it's the same chuck on the white board with the Emco for comparison. The baby is a rare Unimat PC version which weren't made for very long- I never added the PC drive set-up as it actually cost more than the lathe itself and went back to the old 486 computer days, so was already ridiculously outdated. Think Emco realised this too late- they are a superb little manual lathe though, and last of the small model production from Austria.
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    Here's a couple more of the door for size
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    Cheers again both for your interest and kind comments

  8. #8

    Default

    150mm is definitely a good size and it gives a good weight also

    Your method for machining the bolt holes is definitely good if you dont have a dividing head.

    Your lathes are cool and certainly more precise than my big fat lady So yeah, you have fine equipment!

    Did you use hardened rod for the bolts or is the finish just shiny? Could you tell more about the pressure system?

    Thanks and

    Maik

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    1,754
    Country: Wales

    Default

    Cheers Maik, in the past I've always used stainless steel for the locking bolts but for this one I used polished chromed steel bar. Reason being the only reamer I had close enough was an imperial fractional size and I had the same size in chromed bar already in stock. Worked out well though- very easy to slot the ends of all the bolts and the chrome plating gives a silky smooth action in the reamed holes.

    Still working over the pressure mech.
    I'll be mounting the main spindle in miniature ball races so it'll spin realistically like full size- plenty of revolutions to drive the bars and cams like the real thing- that's the easy bit.
    I've decided on the 3-point configuration for the bars (which is undoubtedly the most difficult- silly me, I never learn)but I'm still working on the gearing (mix of crown/pinion & worm)for now, so will post more details and photos when I'm there..

    Cheers again

    PS- here's a group shot
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  10. #10

    Default

    Hey man

    The group photo is really nice and I loved to read about your cannonball safe The other bigger door seems to be made of aluminium and the really small door maybe bronze? As far as the photo shows, this might be your first round steel door. Am I right?

    About the pressure system: Your ideas are ambitious indeed. Since you have an 120° angle between two rods you can simply connect the rods via bevel gears and on one of them you put the worm gear. Other options are of course available. The gear ratio of my pressure system is 1:10 and it can easily put half a ton of pressure on my door which I am quite happy with.

    So how about the eccentrics on the ends of the pressure rods? Are you going to machine them in one piece together with the whole rod? Or are they screwed on the rod as I did on my pressure bar? The eccentric pins might be a problem when just turned out of the whole rod since machined parts are not as durable as forged parts for example. So I dont know whether they are going to bend... Any thoughts on this?

    Cheers

    Maik

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