back in action

Ok, haven't posted in forever. Been busy working or wasting time of course.

I've been stopped on the ks14 project since I decided to scrap the current RF shielding monstrosity and actually mill out a sleek and elegant aluminum block for mounting the PCBs from the USB wifi sticks.

The hope is that the new RF shielding block gives me enough room inside the clipboard box to mount a Sheeva plug computer (Seagate Dockstar), and make this whole thing into a self contained contraption with single gigabit connection to the outside world.

Aluminum stock for RF Shielding blocks

I've got a DIY milling setup I'm almost done with which I plan to use to mill the aluminum material above.

I've pushed a drill press into milling service. But, it's a massive drill press, and I did come up with the equivalent of a drawbar for it. It's only a stainless 8-32 bolt doing the "drawing" into a #3 Morse taper, but it seems good enough for the  light milling I've done so far. I have another post ready which will detail that reverse drawbar thing.

Right now I'm working on mounting some chinese DRO scales(ebay $35) to the X-Y table so I can more easily work with it and compensate for backlash etc.

Cheap $35 single axis DRO scale

I've got a slew of endmills, taps and machining accessories, plus I watched a couple dozen youtube videos, so what can go wrong?!?

I hope to be post another update this weekend with some progress, at least with the DRO scales mounted and the beginnings of some cuts on the RF shielding blocks.