Active Atom and the team are busy refurbishing machinery and tools and shared their first machine to be in full operation, a German Tapping machine. Also the company is adding a new work area, Patrick shares the new correct way to refurbish a drill chuck and retain the smooth values of greatness while Lance machines a reassembly tool Patrick needs to complete the work on two machine tool accessories. And finally Lance shares a few micro-machine world taps and dies that are each really, really small and Patrick taps a 1.0mm diameter hole and places a screw into it perfectly.

TOPICS

• Machine and tool rebuilding progress.
• How to CORRECTLY refurbish and lubricate an Albrecht precision chuck.
• Making a Levin Lathe reassembly tool.
• YouTube Educational Videos update.
• Around the home and shop happenings.
• Product is code named "The Perfected Product".
• Sharing our story through videos and social media.

We finished the refurbishing of the German Tapping Machine maker Hagen & Goebel, model Type HG-2 and an issue arises that causes attention to detail about the chuck (the final part to reassemble) for this machine to lead us into an investigation.

GOOD NEWS IS ASSURED

The chuck is a German made Albrecht chuck that does get solved and Patrick does continue on to tap our first holes since refurbishing the tapping machine tapping, a really small 1.0mm diameter thread into a test drill plate of brass to test the tapping machine for repeat-ability about.

This tapping machine was not new to us when we bought it out of San Diego, California many years ago so to hear this tapping machine tap such precision and accurate holes, and to do it in such a quiet fashion is a joy and pleasure to experience.

ALBRECHT CHUCK CHALLENGE

Patrick runs into issues with an Albrecht chuck refurbishing when he tries to use the Albrecht companies own detailed Instruction Guide to accomplish the chuck refurnish so it can be mounted back onto the German made tapping machine. This was to be the final part to be accomplished so that we can film the first holes being tapped since we stopped using the tapping machine to refurbish it along with a few dozen other high tolerance precision machines, machine tools and machine accessories during our down time before we start making the product code named "The Perfected Product".

ALBRECHT CHUCK TALK

Using the factory Instruction Guide from Albrecht GmbH Germany which the company offers from their online website, Patrick becomes very very displeased as an Albrecht chuck is one if not the finest drill and tapping machine tool chucks made not to mention the cost, these are worth every penny to refurbish as they cost in the many hundreds of dollars to buy. 

We disassemble both our current 30 to 40 years in age, used for tapping on our Hagen & Goebel Type HG-2 tapping machine with an Albrecht chuck size 0.0mm through 3.0mm (1/8") maximum capacity as well as that of a new one. The current used chuck and a brand new in the box chuck are each dissected in great detail, both being the same model, size and part numbers, we set out to refurbish ours to see what the specifications shows us and what the actual brand new chuck showed inside once the devices were opened.

LEVIN & SON - MINI, MINIATURE AND MICRO-SIZED PRECISION MACHINE TOOLS

Levin lathe accessories are completed in refurbishing and have been provided to Patrick to reassemble, oil and test the remaining accessory units before finally being placed back into service.

Patrick notifies Lance that he must make a soft metal, precision machined and ergonomic tool for Patrick to finalize two attachments for their specific installation is of the larger hand crank dial spring with an estimated diameter of 5/8 or .625 of an inch (we have the smaller one around 1/2 or .500 of an inch) for these fine instrument bed length lathes being a Levin Radius and Levin-Micro-Drill accessories.

THE MAKING of EDUCATIONAL YouTube VIDEOS for our CHANNEL ACTIVE ATOM

We have to begin the educational 4 or 5 part series of how to rebuild a Levin Spindle and also rebuilding a Levin Head Stock Spindle.
These videos are in addition to our weekly series SHOP ADVENTURES, the journey of two childhood friends as they head out to make the greatest American Machined product ever from design through to packaging it and every step in between.

ACTIVE ATOM PRECISION MACHINING SHOP UPGRADES

Active Atom precision machining begins finalization work on a previously started 120 square foot out building we are finishing as an additional refined work area to be named the "Finishing Area" that should conclude in April or May 2019.

We currently film our weekly YouTube Active Atom channel series titled Shop Adventures from within our home, converted mostly into a full design, engineering, machining and finishing operation. The filming takes place in our "Machine Shop Area" and our "Work Shop Area" where nearly all of the actual machining and finishing work currently takes place. So this addition of the Finishing Area is going to make things easier cleaner and more controllable.

We are a very organized pair of skilled men with specific quality assurance requirements that we must meet, repeat and maintain at all times for our work. So we set out to divide our operations, a home converted into a full design, machining, micro-machining, finishing, electronics operation into very name specific areas as shared here.

• Area One
  Machine Shop (larger machined parts and final product assembly area)
  
  
• Area Two
  Work Shop (micro-machined parts area)
  
  
• Area Three IS A NEW AREA BEING SHARED HERE
  Finishing Shop (bead blast, sand, finishing, polishing, smoothing and tumbling area)
  
  
• Area Four
  Design Shop (drawings of ideas and product thoughts a futuristic thinking area)
  
  
• Area Five
  Electronics Shop (PCB, breadboard, testing, electronic device creating and repair area)
  
  
• Area Six
  Facility Support Shop (total property home shops and vehicle support and maintaince area)
  
  
• Area Seven
  Office (computers computer programming, CAD drawings, CNC programming, emailing, accounting and phone area)

ACTIVE ATOM PRODUCT UPDATES

Currently rebuilding and refurbishing precision machinery, tools and micro machining accessories to prepare the start on the product a multi component, high tolerance, aerospace grade, micro mini product code named "The Perfected Product". Machinery, machine tools, precision machines and the accessories should all be completed and ready to start the making of our first production product.

Product design, CAD and prototyping begins in just a few short months and then we are going to produce a hand full of samples that are going to specific and trusted product reviewers that are highly skilled friends of us here at Active Atom.

GETTING THE WORD OUT - DIGITAL MARKETING

 

Getting out and sharing our message, images and videos has never been so easy to do. Patrick is becoming a big Instagram hit with many fellow YouTube creators and many form the watchmaker and micro-machining worlds as he shares images and tell stories of each image he uploads onto the Instagram system.

Lance is alive and busy over on Twitter and Facebook, uploading stories and sharing our current status from our weekly YouTube series Shop Adventures as we are gearing up and sharing with many. The new added feature to start shortly as mentioned above, an educational series of great detailed videos separate from the weekly Shop Adventures series that are sharing the details of some of the machinery and tool rebuilding that we do step by step. We will continue to grow the educational releases through sharing of our designing, engineering, programming, machining, finishing and any other detailed videos from the series we are currently calling "Video Pullouts".