Construction Phase

Fig 3.1 - Drawing Tree

Housing Assembly

The first portion of the Housing Sub-Assembly to be built was the 4 angle iron parts that make up the frame. These parts were cut from 1.5X1.5X0.25 inch angle iron using a metal cutoff saw. To perfect the parts to the correct lengths, to fix angles, and to chamfer edges a hand held angle grinder was used. To add the holes to the frame crossmembers a drill press was used. The machining of the holes were completed after the welding of the frame to ensure the location of the holes were not misaligned if the frame is not completely square.

To increase the time efficiency and precision of manufacturing all three of the housing plates were produced with the use of a CNC Torchmate plasma cutter. This was able to cut out all of the housing plates within an hour from a 1/4 inch steel plate. The plates were then cleaned up using a hand held angle grinder.

Crushing Wheel Assembly

The crushing wheel teeth were the first part of the crushing wheel assembly to be completed. They were cutout from 0.75X0.75X0.125 inch angle iron using a metal cutoff saw. A grinding wheel was used to clean off the metal burrs.

The 1/2 inch keys were all cut to size using the metal band saw. A pedestal grinder was also used to ensure the lengths were within +/- .05 inches of the design.

All 4 crushing wheel discs were also cut out of a 1/4 inch steel plate using the Torchmate CNC plasma cutter. The plasma cutter was able to add needed miniscule design features that were added for ease of placement for the addition of the crushing wheel teeth. A hand held grinder was also used to clean up the crushing wheel discs.

To manufacture the crushing wheel hubs it was determined to be most precise to first drill a hole and then bore out the rest of the inner diameter. A lot of the boring was automated using the HAAS CNC lathe boring function. The final .15 in of the inner diameter was done by hand for a higher precision.

Video 3.1 - Manufacturing Processes

Fig 3.3 - Drill Press used for adding holes to the frame for attaching the housing plates

Fig 3.2 - Ensuring the bottom of frame is square

Fig 3.4 - Using CNC plasma cutter to cut out Housing Plates

Fig 3.5 - Using metal band saw to cut 1/2 inch keys

Fig 3.6 - Using Haas CNC lathe to bore out inner diameter of crushing wheel hub

To manufacture the crushing shafts it was decided to use a CNC lathe for greater precision, repeatability, and time efficiency. Initially the shaft were loaded into a manual engine lathe and center holes were drilled. The shafts were then loaded into a Milltronics Lathe to be turned down and have the snap ring groove added. The keyway grooves were added with a manual lathe.