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Woody
Woody MegaDork
7/10/19 7:29 p.m.
Toyman01 said:

How about a Harbor Freight Mini-Mill that's been sitting for 5 years. All my tooling is being used on my big mill but I have a R8 drill chuck I can throw in. I also have the belt drive conversion for it that I never installed. 

The picture isn't mine, but it's in pretty good condition. I needs a good cleaning to get the swarf out of all the cracks and crevices. 

Deal!!

Dead_Sled
Dead_Sled HalfDork
7/10/19 7:58 p.m.
DrBoost said:

It’s a stereo soo loud it’ll blow women’s clothes off. 

 

Who knows the reference?

Italian job.

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
7/10/19 9:24 p.m.

In reply to Woody :

I'll throw it in the Urban. My stop for the night is the Hampton Inn in Rocky Hill off I-91 the evening of the 19th. We can meet up wherever is convenient. I'll shoot you a PM with my cell number and we can sort out the details next week. 

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
7/14/19 5:14 p.m.

Just so we are on the same page, these are pictures of the actual machine. 

You also will be getting a spare set of gears, the belt drive conversion, and a spring loaded column lock. Parts I never needed or never got around to installing. 

 

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard Director of Marketing & Digital Assets
7/14/19 5:21 p.m.

That’s adorable! Never knew these existed! 

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
7/14/19 6:07 p.m.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

They are surprisingly capable as well if you take your time and don't rush it. 

Woody
Woody MegaDork
7/14/19 10:17 p.m.

Cool. 

Woody
Woody MegaDork
7/19/19 8:04 p.m.

Should I ever find myself in need of a rally navigator, I will gladly hire Toyman.

He said that he would be at my house around 6:00, and he pulled into the driveway as the second hand was about to pass the 12. Super nice guy too.

I look forward to learning how to operate a mini-mill!

 

Safe travels, my friend.

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
7/19/19 8:22 p.m.

In reply to Woody :

Pleasure meeting you as well. 

There may have been a little bit of luck in the navigation. Everyone and their entire family must be headed to the Northeast this weekend in separate cars. What a zoo. 

 

Have fun with the mill!

 

greenfieldhippi
greenfieldhippi New Reader
7/19/19 10:52 p.m.

I'm still looking for a full EV Lemons team, 50k in nickles.... yes pleaaaase

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/11/19 9:29 p.m.

I finally got a chance to fiddle with the Segway some. 

Testing both batteries showed both of them to be under 10 volts. Low enough that the charger would not recognise them and charge them. 

A little research showed that they needed to be close to 60 volts for the charger to start a charge cycle. The pack voltage is 73 volts. 

So I dug into my box of tricks (the shop) and came up with...nothing. The highest voltage I could charge to was 20 volts. So I hot wired one battery and dumped 20 volts to it to see what would happen. The pack promptly came up to 20 volts and stayed there. 

 

Then I was stumped. 70+ volt chargers are insanely expensive and I didn't know of a way I could fake out the onboard charger without risking burning it up. 

In my charger search I came across a variable voltage, variable current power supply on Amazon for $100. Since buying or rebuilding the Segway packs runs $1500 and up, I thought I would take the gamble and try it. It came in today. Max output is 60 volts DC, max current is 3 amps. I set the voltage at 100% and the current at 100 milliamps. I didn't want to dump a bunch of current into it and chance blowing up a cell. 

Both packs slowly came up to 61 volts so I bolted them back onto the Segway and plugged in the charger. 

Both charge indicators turned green instead of red. It looks to be taking a charger. I'll know for sure in the morning. 

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/12/19 6:36 a.m.

And this morning, it powered up.

I managed to ride it from one side of the shop to the other without killing myself or it. 

We will see how it does this evening. 

Stampie
Stampie PowerDork
8/12/19 6:57 a.m.

In reply to Toyman01 :

Do you have a preferred LiPo charger?

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/12/19 7:06 a.m.

In reply to Stampie :

I have had very good luck with the Supermate pictured above. It has the advantage of being able to charge just about anything. Lithium, Ni-Cd, Ni–HI, and PB. It's also pretty easy to program and reasonably priced. 

The Imax is pretty much identical and also works well. 

 

Woody
Woody MegaDork
8/12/19 7:20 a.m.

In reply to Toyman01 :

I’m very happy about this! I’m glad that the Segway has found the right home. 

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/12/19 4:24 p.m.

My son and I put about 1.5 hours on it this afternoon. 

It's a lot easier to ride than I thought it would be. Really kind of a brilliant machine. 

RevRico
RevRico PowerDork
8/12/19 4:42 p.m.

So uh, thoughts and experiences on that mill? Turns out the HF coupons work on it, and shipping is only $21 (when I looked)so it's something I'm thinking about

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/12/19 5:06 p.m.

It does a very good job. It can be a challenge to work on larger items but for 95% of what I have made it worked perfectly. I would still be using it if I hadn't bought a larger one. 

Woody
Woody MegaDork
8/12/19 5:43 p.m.
Toyman01 said:

My son and I put about 1.5 hours on it this afternoon. 

It's a lot easier to ride than I thought it would be. Really kind of a brilliant machine. 

That’s exactly how I wanted this story to end!

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