New machine day

Almost as good as Christmas and twice as good as a birthday unless they coincide. My Rong-Fu clone is a great machine to start with. Good work envelope, fairly well powered and often more ridgid than many other mini-mills for the same price. It's biggest downfall perhaps is its ability to retain spindle location on the round column when the head clamp is loosened in order to lower or raise the head. When doing concentric operations this can be a pain.

Knee-mills like Bridgeports and their clones are a premium if you can find one. Alternatives are likewise rare and overpriced. A machine came available on Trademe that had great potential as a second machine. Initially I had concerns about its likeness to a jig-borer which can handle light milling operations. However the differences were also obvious. Like a bigger version of a Myford VMB it has wide dovetails on the column and the ability to lock them. The spindle is considerably beefier with double row angular contact and ball bearings. The table is also beefier with far greater range of operation making this machine more like a mill.

While I'd like the advantage of tilting the head there are few operations that call for it where tilting the work is not sufficient. On the plus side my MT3 tooling is all ready to use. After a good clean and changing the motor out for a similar speed 2hp single phase its ready to use for quarter the price of more popular machines.

Detours

It's been years since I had a suitable kite mountainboard and I have always been a fan of the D-Ex Genesis elastomer truck design. However since DesignExtreme stopped production choices have been limited to skate and channel trucks.

Where there's a will there's a way. Since embarking on the mission to come up with an elastomer for the leading link suspension on the buggies I realised I had found a solution to my truck design and thus I have the very first board built from scratch.

Moosetruck 2.0

After a long time sorting out other workshop projects and getting the design reworked I made some changes to the original.
* I did not like the bolt-on rear. While it had a nice cross member it was a pain to bolt on.
* Seat frame was too wide and is now a snug fit.
* The front was a little high in the gooseneck and the forks so that was compacted and the mounting bolt was changed to a simple coach bolt.
* The springboard axle was a success and could be added permanently.
 * The back rest brackets looked terrible and slipped. Now I build a large h-frame hydraulic press I could bow some tube to fit the arch of my back.
* The seat was totally rebuilt. A little more 3D in shape and better located straps to support it.
* Spent a long time on the axle brackets and in the end it was so simple.

End result is stiffer, lighter and better fitting. Still want to make a mesh kit bag for the rear but for now it's ready to ride.