dkj4linux
Elite member
Rit,I am working on my needle cutter, and I see that the bearing does help to keep the needle strait, so, I will incorporate them, there is quite a bit of room in the tip for the wire, it will be interesting to see this thing run.
--Does anyone have any hints on hanging the needle on the motor bearing?
--Has anyone tried to harden the tip of the needle?
Basically what Jason described to form the needle... look back at post #26 on page 2 of this thread for the way I've used to form the needle for attachment to the flywheel bearing. Rather than CA, I've always grooved the bearing slightly with a cutoff wheel... it can be done if careful not the let it spin up and overheat; i.e. you can use a finger in light contact with the bearing, as a brake, while grooving it, to keep it from spinning up to high speed and overheating.
Shur's flywheel is probably better yet... but like Jason I just haven't taken the time to design a flywheel to hold/enclose the bearing yet. Attachment of the needle would be greatly simplified.
There's no real need to harden the needle... music-/piano-wire is high-quality spring steel that wears well in the application and doesn't require a needle-sharp point. Here's a freshly-pointed needle that's done no cutting yet... and this will, in my experience, most likely be the only sharpening it'll ever need.
-- David