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April 2010 Group Picture
There are hobby machinist groups scattered around the USA including a small HSM group in Connecticut. Our CTHSM group is congenial and freewheeling:
no rules, no dues, just people getting together to learn new techniques plus share thoughts on machining and other topics that arise. Meetings are held in member shops, nominally on the second Sunday of the month at 2pm. Anyone interested in attending a meeting please contact me
(via the link below on this page) for more info and travel directions.
The December 11th 2022 meeting was at Frank's shop in Plainville, CT. (Pictures below are from the October meeting.)
Eric continues to make progress on his new clock, as seen here. At left is the partially complete chapter ring. In this clock the chapter ring helps to hold part of the works so it is very sturdy, made from 1/8" brass.
At the December meeting Eric showed the unusual motion work attached to this chapter ring. This consisted of two gears of the same diameter, concentric on the shaft, with different numbers of teeth but formed with the same gear cutter - the spacing between teeth on one gear is slightly greater. A lantern pinion engages both gears and rotates with the minute hand. Because of the differing number of teeth, this drives the hour hand at the correct rate.
Parts for Ralph's locomotive. The level of detail produced with Ralph's investment casting method is always impressive. It takes a while to produce the 3D printed parts and then burn them out of the mold material but the metal poured into the resulting mold very accurately reproduces all the details.
More parts for Ralph's locomotive.
At the December meeting Ralph showed more of the very detailed parts he produces using investment casting. He also showed some of the plastic parts which would be burned out of the molds as part of the casting process.
Paul is making steel grinding wheels for his Grind-R-Lap to which he will glue thin diamond lapidary disks. He found that the steel plate he used as raw material wasn't flat so he had the use his surface grinder prior to machining the wheels from the steel plate with his Tormach mill.
Here's an interesting variation on using the Kant Twist clamp parts available to CTHSM members.
See: Kant Twist Knurler at HSM
The February 12, 2023 meeting will be at my shop in Newtown, CT. No meeting in January due to conflict with Cabin Fever.
Parts for Kant Twist clamps will be available at this meeting.
As usual, bring items for demonstration and/or discussion. Plus items for the sale/swap/free table.
Home shop machining is often a solitary hobby, as are most hobbies now according to "Bowling Alone".
The CTHSM group is an attempt to get area HSM's to know one another and thus make our hobby a little less solitary.
The much larger NEMES HSM group is 2-3 hours away so we share some members and occasionally have visitors from that group.
The CTHSM group has been meeting since November 2008, mostly on the 2nd Sunday of the month at 2pm, but we deviate from this with some regularity. The January meeting is not held since Cabin Fever conflicts, February has seen a couple meetings cancelled due to weather, the May meeting is on the 3rd Sunday to avoid a conflict with Mother's Day, and we don't meet in July because many members are on vacation. Over time our meeting schedule has become predictably irregular...
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Pictures from our unusual "Music Machine Meetings"
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