# machining (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 3 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover machining. Page: Feed: --- ## [Painted Zipp](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/painted_zipp/) _2026-06-20 · Home on Robot Daycare_ I finished applying all the layers of paint, sparkles, and clearcoat to the Zipp 2001 frame a couple months ago, and finally worked up the motivation to sand and polish the clearcoat. I did 2 coats of dark grey base coat, 2 coats of the Keirin flake topcoat, and probably 5+ coats of the clear topcoat so I’d have enough meat to sand down the high spots and polish without hitting the sparkles… ## [Drafting Table: an engineering sketchbook](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/drafting_table/) _2026-05-26 · Home on Robot Daycare_ I got a Wacom MovinkPad 11 drawing tablet a few months ago as a portable replacement for my ancient Wacom Bamboo USB drawing tablet. Overall it’s been great. I’ve been using it for illustrating blog posts and making engineering sketches for work and personal projects. I’ve enjoyed Clip Studio for actual “art”, but haven’t found a program I like as an engineering… ## [Low-profile two-piece vises for the CNC router](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/mod_vise/) _2026-04-20 · Home on Robot Daycare_ I replaced the little 5-axis mill with a router recently, and needed a low-profile vise system for holding large workpieces. I’ve heard good things about the SMW Mod Vise, but they are designed for fixture plates, not 100mm pitch t-slots like the router has. And 3 sets to cover the hole table with serrated inserts would be pretty pricey. I came up with a simple design that uses these… ## [Good Bonds](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/adhesive/) _2026-04-15 · Home on Robot Daycare_ Adhesive bonds. Don’t worry, this isn’t becoming a finance blog. I do a lot of bonding parts together between my work and personal projects. At this point I have some (I think) reasonable default choices - Loctite 401 or 380 for plastics and elastomers, Loctite E-20HP or 3M DP420 for rigid metal & composites, Loctite 648 for metal slip/press fits, etc. But for important or unusual… ## [Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/actuation_series_1/) _2026-03-12 · Home on Robot Daycare_ This is the beginning of a series of posts about robot actuation. The intent here is not to prescribe some specific architecture or solution, but to talk about the fundamentals, with as little bias as I can manage. Hopefully you learn something. Here’s an ostensibly straightforward question for anyone who’s spent time thinking about robot actuators. Take a look at the three cartoon… ## [Machining new endcaps for a DT Swiss hub](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/making_dt_hub_endcaps/) _2026-03-02 · Home on Robot Daycare_ I needed to convert a DT Swiss hub from using a 15mm thru-axle down to a 12mm thru axle to fit on my commuter bike. You can buy the parts to do this, but instead of spending $50 on the parts, I spent some quality time with the lathe and a log of 7075 to make a new set. ## [Machining a saddle clamp for the Zipp](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/zipp_saddle_clamp/) _2026-02-17 · Home on Robot Daycare_ The original saddle clamps on the Zipp 2001’s were not very well designed, and the clamp that came with my frame (like many) was broken. The originals have 2 major problems: 1) The screws that clamp the rails on the saddle are tightened counterclockwise, not clockwise - I’ve seen stripped out screws because of this on a couple clamps. You think you’re loosening the saddle clamps,… ## [Bin Tracker](https://timang.us/2026-02-16-bin-tracker/) _2026-02-16 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ Several years ago, my domestic waste bin went missing. Bit odd I thought, but then it was quite old and looking somewhat worse for wear, perhaps the fortnightly refuse collectors had decided it was EOL and taken it away for recycling? I ordered a new one from the council and didn’t think any more of it. A couple of years later though, it went missing again, and this time I couldn’t come up with a… ## [Zipp 2001 Restoration, Part 1](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/zipp-2001-restoration-part-1/) _2026-02-11 · Home on Robot Daycare_ I think the Zipp 2001 is one of the coolest bicycles ever made. These were only produced from 1992-1997, until the UCI banned bikes that weren’t the traditional “double-diamond” shape from professional racing. Probably because they were too fast. Image taken from this 1993 Zipp Catalog The early 90’s was when frame builders started seriously using carbon fiber for its… ## [A new toolpost spindle, part 1](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2026-01-16-a-new-toolpost-spindle-part-1/) _2026-01-16 · Home on Robot Daycare_       3D printed expanding fixture for op 2    ## [Build with the cheapest GPUs (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/hWI6Dx3jAFdm) _2026-01-16 · **Sponsored**_ Deployed a live API in minutes; one user spent under $10. ## [Table tennis scoreboard](https://willempennings.nl/table-tennis-scoreboard/) _2025-11-11 · Willem · Willem Pennings_ Last year, my uncles asked me to design an electronic table tennis scoreboard. Apparently, what they wanted wasn’t for sale (at least not in New Zealand). Since they’re very enthusiastic about the game, I agreed and created a design. It features: I’m using an ESP32 microcontroller for this project. It runs an HTTP web server… Continue reading Table tennis scoreboard ## [Kart Rear Brake Mounting](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2025-10-05-kart-rear-brake-mounting/) _2025-10-05 · Home on Robot Daycare_  Split rear axle means 2 rear brakes Laser cut stainless steel bracket from Send Cut Send Using the lathe as a drill press to countersink the holesRe-using the old brake rotor Time for some plumbing ## [Digital Rear View Mirror](https://timang.us/2025-09-19-digital-rear-view-mirror/) _2025-09-19 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ Driving a van without rear windows, there is obviously also no rear view mirror. At some point, however, I became aware that aftermarket digital rear view mirrors are available. These use a camera pointing backwards, and the “mirror” itself is simply a screen. I did a survey of the available options and they fell into two broad types, those that clipped on top of an existing rear view mirror, and… ## [And We're Back](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2025-09-01-and-we-re-back/) _2025-09-01 · Home on Robot Daycare_ It has been an eventful year.  I'm finally back to working on projects. After some firmware fiddling, the new drive units are finally spinning, driven by the kart's original gen 2 Prius-based inverter: ## [Laptop Keyboard Repair](https://timang.us/2025-08-30-laptop-repair/) _2025-08-30 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ I recently(ish) got a new(ish) laptop. In the main I’m very happy with it, but it had one flaw, that being that when struck on the right hand side, the space bar would either not work at all, or sometimes insert a double space. This was highly annoying and wasn’t something I was prepared to put up with. I looked into getting an OEM replacement but this was going to be nearly half what I had paid… ## [Garmin App for Pinion Smart.Shift Settings](https://timang.us/2025-08-09-pinion-garmin-settings/) _2025-08-09 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ In one of my earlier posts where I discuss my first impressions of the Pinion Smart.Shift gearbox I had fitted to my bike, I had a little moan about the missed opportunity in the Pre.Select auto shifting feature. This is a setting where a gear is automatically pre-selected if the system detects you’re coasting. In general I like it, but it becomes annoying when switched on all the time. For me I… ## [A year of adventures](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2025-07-16-a-year-of-adventures/) _2025-07-16 · Home on Robot Daycare_ This isn't one of my usual project blog posts, but I owe my dear readers some context for the lack of project content. The last year did not go like I expected. Part 1: I ride my bike a lot In mid May last year my friend Sam and I decided to ride the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a mostly off-road route from Banff, AB to the Mexico border in Antelope Wells, NM.  We'd been talking about it… ## [Pinion Smart.Shift Charge Port](https://timang.us/2025-01-27-pinion-charge-port/) _2025-01-27 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ I covered in an earlier post that I had retrofitted a Pinion Smart.Shift gearbox to my Deviate Guide. I ended that post mentioning that I had yet to come up with a good solution for accessing the battery charge port, leaving it poking out one of the existing cable holes; hardly ideal. ## [Drive Units Mounted](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-12-09-drive-units-mounted/) _2024-12-09 · Home on Robot Daycare_ ## [Retrofitting Pinion Smart.Shift](https://timang.us/2024-11-22-deviate-smart-shift/) _2024-11-22 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ In 2023, Pinion began a staged release of a new model of their eponymous gearboxes, this one collectively branded Smart.Shift, and it immediately piqued my interest. In contrast to their previous efforts, this one shifted electrically, using a single sided trigger shifter, and promised better shift under load performance to boot. As I’ve alluded to before, I wasn’t a fan of their grip shift… ## [Zero-Persistence E2EE (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/RPBqaMRvli1U) _2024-11-22 · **Sponsored**_ End-to-end encryption with client-side WebCrypto and volatile memory. ## [Drive unit mounting parts](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-11-17-drive-unit-mounting-parts/) _2024-11-17 · Home on Robot Daycare_ All bonded together A torsion-less bar, if you will ## [Kart Steering Yoke](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-11-10-kart-steering-yoke/) _2024-11-10 · Home on Robot Daycare_ A fun afternoon design project: Grip geometry still  needs some fine-tuning ## [Go Kart Revival Part 1: Drive Units](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-10-31-go-kart-revival-part-1-drive-units/) _2024-10-31 · Home on Robot Daycare_  As I've mentioned in previous posts, robot land has an annual car-and-other-vehicle show.  Last year I brought the trike, but the year before that I brought the electric kart I worked on with Bayley. Picture from Bayley Before the event, the kart hadn't been touched since the pre-Covid days.  Bringing it back to life and ripping around the parking lot was a great reminder of two… ## [Cable Extension](https://timang.us/2024-10-28-cable-extension/) _2024-10-28 · Tim Angus · Stuff What I Made_ For reasons, I needed to extend a cable, which meant splicing a section into the middle of it. This cable was going to be used outdoors, so it needed to be moderately water proof. ## [Working on the kart again](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-10-19-working-on-the-kart-again/) _2024-10-19 · Home on Robot Daycare_  Finally retrieved it from MITERS, where it's been hanging from the ceiling for the last six years or so Prius inverter based motor drive will be the next thing to be redone after it drives again: ## [Off on an adventure](https://robot-daycare.com/posts/2024-09-24-off-on-an-adventure/) _2024-09-24 · Home on Robot Daycare_ Why haven't I been building anything?  I was off on an Adventure.