Today's progress: dome machining

[kproche]

I'll let the photos tell the story:

Dome with slot milled out This was done freehand with a side-cutting wood bit on my Dremel. Be kind.

Oblique view of bowl with slot

The dome support plate after reshaping

oblique profile of dome support plateT The important point here is that I figured out how to set my jigsaw to cut at an angle other than normal to the surface, so now the disk will fit into the dome/bowl better.

Angle bracket on support plate The process is thus: prepare the dome and plate, re-bend 90 degree angle brackets to match the walls of the dome, affix brackets into dome, unbolt plate from brackets for further work.

Re shaped plate (with brackets) fit into dome before gluing

plate glued and weighted into dome I used Titanium 5 Epoxy, which will bond to both the steel angle brackets and the (roughened) surface of the bowl. The gallon of windex is to weight/clamp the mating surfaces together.

Test assembly of dome onto neck bin A center bolt maintains alignment; rollers on the outer rim of the dome support play ride on the top plate of the neck bin. The dome rotates very smoothly with two "bumps" where a roller impinges one of the tee-nuts for the compression frame components. The position of the rollers can be adjusted to avoid the tee nut.

Dome inverted to show the rollers.

Closeup of rollers Instead of Casters, I'm using bathtub sliding door rollers; they're only 7/8" in diameter