Finished up anodizing the parts for the 3rd leg, 3 more to go! Unfortunately I put a number on the 'knee' and it turned out I had the number on upside down... Now I have to strip the anodized coating off and start over on that part. Slow 2 days off, planning on starting to put together one leg next time off and verifying measurements. I still have to use the lathe to create all the cross members that provide stiffening support.
I did re-arrange my basement workshop for a location for the new lathe which should be showing up in the next 2-3 weeks. It may take a while to get it down into the basement since it weights around 1250 lbs. I'll attempt to disassemble as much as I can first.
I hope you never have to move it back out of that basement. Having just hauled a 450lb lathe up this winter, I resolved that there shall be no more basements shops for this aging nerd.
No pictures this time, just polished up all the anodized parts and press fit the bearings for the first leg. That went pretty well and the 14 bearing are properly seated. Next was temporarily bolting up the leg parts to verify the fit of everything and that went well also. I now have the final dimensions for all the parts that connect the two sides of each leg together. I need to start making on the lathe next. I just put in a order for various shoulder bolts from McMaster Carr, should get those Monday. I'll start work on the lathe for this first leg and anodize the lathe pieces. I may wait until the new lathe arrives, it'll be much faster than my small lathe and I can get the large parts I need to do taken care of.
I received the optically clear 12" acrylic sphere and a a 5" diameter clear acrylic tube to mount the sphere on. This will go on the top of the computer level and will eventually contain a pan and tilt unit with a video camera attached. This will allow remote operation of the robot without actually having to be near it. Plus I think it will look cool!
I'm eagerly awaiting seeing photos of your newest assembly!
Would you be willing to disclose your source of the Optically Clear 12" acrylic sphere?
I'm both interested in the source and exactly the acrylic material
If it's something propriotary, I understand.
Just wondering.
The acrylic sphere and rod are sitting in a corner of the workshop for now, haven't done anything with them yet. The rod came from McMaster Carr but I'll have to find the receipt for the sphere. I just did a Google search and located that particular item.
Didn't do anything on the robot this last days off period, came down with something that is going around work and didn't have the energy or ambition to get downtown the shop. I did receive the shoulder bolt order so now I'm set for creating the leg cross pieces on the lathe. I also got a notice that the new lathe is in PA getting the DRO installed. Should have it freight shipped in the next couple of weeks.
My next days off is Tuesday/Wendsday so if I'm feeling better should get much more done!
Spent some time on the small lathe creating some of the cross bars. I determined that I need to add some precision spacers in a few locations since the bearings are mounted in 0.25 thick aluminum and the bearings are only 0.162 thick. This means that some of the aluminum is rubbing which kind of removes the advantages of having bearings. So back to McMaster Carr to order a variety of spacers ranging from 0.005 through 0.060 thick. I'll need these installed in order to determine the final sizes on some of the cross bars so I'm done for the night.
I got notification that the new lathe will be shipped by the end of the week, should see it sometime next week.
Got the precision spacers and finished putting the first leg together mechanically. Ran into an unexpected problem when mounting the lift motor actuator. It seems the design of the actuator changed where the wiring exits the actuator. The original actuator has the wires exiting through a flexible wire restraint and the newer actuators use a hard plastic restraint that is a different position. The problem is the new wire location is right where the main leg support struts are and I can't install the actuator to the mounting block. I took the actuator apart and I'll either have to drill a new hole for the wires in the housing somewhere else or cut off the threaded wire restraint.
The leg mechanism moves nicely and is very sturdy with almost no 'slop' when a sideways force is applied. This is important since there will be a lot of force on the sides of the legs during normal walking motions.
The leg looks nice, will have to get the camera down in the workshop and get some photos of the first production leg next to the test leg. I still need to find a way to shine up the gold highlights on the leg, they are in recesses so they are harder to get the polish in there and then buffed out. This may have to be done by hand only. I'm liking the look so far, only 5 more legs to go!
I need to document the cross brace dimensions and sizes, and the spacers used in each location so I don't end up disassembling this leg multiple times and all the legs are identical. That may be tonight's project before heading into work at 10PM.
Finally have all the parts for one leg completed and anodized! I put together a video showing how the parts come together and what the leg looks like.
I have almost all the parts anodized for building two more legs and then I need to finish up anodizing the rest of the already made parts. There are still some additional items to complete such as the gear trains for the other legs, the leg down switch assembly and a limit switch setup for side to side movement. The plan is still to have all the mechanical parts done in time to take this to the Unofficial Parallax get together in Norwalk, Ohio this fall.
The attached photos are of the 8 spacers for 2 legs and the leg pivot assemblies completed and attached to the robot base.
Hope you enjoy the video, let me know if you have any questions
Continuing on with anodizing, have adjusted my technique so I can do 4 parts in 80 minutes where it was taking me 60 minutes to do 2. I'm getting more consistent results now also.
Cut up a 1.5 by 2.5 aluminum bar in to 5 pieces needed for the 'knee' on each leg. This part is done manually on the CNC mill because each side has work done on it and the setup for each side takes a lot of time to get it right.
Otherwise everything is going well, one leg is 95% completed with only a few remaining parts to fabricate from scratch. The leg down micro switch block on the knee is one part to create. There is also the limit switch assembly for the rotation axis that needs to be re-done, the original layout had only one switch, the new one will use 2 switches instead. There are still 38 cross ties remaining to make for the legs (8 per leg) and gear train shafts to finish up on the lathe. That's all the parts I can think of right now. Of course that doesn't include any bright ideas I might have for revisions! I'm trying to avoid revisions unless some just flat out won't work.
Here is a photo of the completed leg, a partially done leg and the original test leg for comparison. The next shot is the body with all the pivot assemblies attached.
The new lathe arrived a few days ago. I've been disassembling it to get it down to a weight that I can get it into the basement with the help of a few friends! It's bigger than I imagined, don't expect to outgrow this one anytime soon!
Finally off of night shift and after 5 days I can fall asleep at night. However, my body still thinks it should be sleeping during the day so if I slow down I start to drift off. Yesterday's budget meeting was brutal!
Otherwise I finished anodizing another 27 parts, almost done with all the machined parts so I need to start making the final parts for the legs. This weekend I won't get too much done, Saturday, several friends are coming over to assist in moving the lathe parts into the basement. I asked for strong backs and weak minds, it seems that no one who previously helped with moving the mill to the basement are available. Once the lathe is down there I need to reassemble and clean it which will take some time.
So there isn't much to report on, I'll keep you informed!
Yeah, the guy that helped me move my lathe down to the basement, was quite unavailable to assist in hauling it back out of the basement! These machines burn through your moving help in a hurry.
No, I haven't disappeared, just busy setting up the new lathe! Finally got 220v run to it last night and after a little troubleshooting its up and running. I still need to align it but today will be a chance to make some of my spacers and see how much easier this is to use.
I've been having fun in the shop with the new lathe! Huge difference in the rigidity and ease of use from the Sherline. The Sherline is a good lathe for small parts but I've been doing so many large pieces in it I've gotten used to the compromises that were necessary. This machine is large enough I can take fewer cuts to get the needed results.
I've been making the cross over spool pieces for the legs. These are fairly simple designs and they are good practice for getting used to the lathe.
Still making cross over spool pieces, just ran out of 1" aluminum rod so had to order some more. The parts that are done are being anodized today. So far 8 are done, another 8 are being dyed and 8 are anodizing right now. Then I have 4 main leg struts to anodize and that will finish up the day.
The new lathe is excellent! It still needs to be aligned but that isn't critical for these smaller pieces. I will have most of the parts completed for 4 legs by the end of tonight. Still have to mill out the knee blocks which is a fairly slow process but progress is still being made.
Continuing work on the hexapod. Now that I know the date for the next Propellor Expo in August, I have a deadline to work against. That's always good for motivation! Anyway, this week I finished polishing all the anodized parts and then press fit 56 bearings into their holes. This makes quite a big pile of finished parts on the workbench.
I started working on assembling the 3rd leg and decided I really needed to get working on the knee housings. With only one knee completed I have 5 more to go. Unfortunately these parts would be best done on a CNC lathe but the mill works OK, its just slower. The photos show the partially assembled leg and what the finished knee looks like.
I cut out the 5 blocks of aluminum, these are 1.5 x 2.0 x 4, fairly nice sized blanks. All 5 blanks were machined to the required dimensions. I finished the initial screw and alignment holes are drilled on 3 of the blanks. On 2 of these I then cut off a 0.5 slice that is used as a centering device for the lower leg.
I'll have to wait for the next weekend to do any more as I'll be away in training for my real job that pays for all my toys...
Almost done with the remaining 5 knee sections. Only have 40 more holes to hand tap until full completion! I did find a minor flaw in the new knee design that will require me to design a o-ring retainer. I should be able to make it out of thin sheet aluminum. It is needed to keep the lower centering oring in the correct position as the leg moves up and down.
I got the warranty replacement cutting tools so I can get back on the new lathe and finish cutting out the few remaining spacers and shafts for the gearing assembly. That pretty much finishes up the metal cutting work, just a few pieces to complete anodizing and then ready to put it all together!
I'm starting to look forward towards designing the controllers for the legs now. I'm planning on using the Parallax Propellor chip as the basis for the controllers. I enjoy programming them and there is a wealth of pre-made modules that can be easily plugged in for a variety of tasks. I haven't found any boards out there that have all the features I need so I will probably design my own board with the IO capabilities I want. I'm surprised how few boards have limited A/D capability, I need 8 channels for each leg and a lot of digital IO pins available for leg control and sensors. Any board I make up will be fully SMT, 4 layer as I like to make as compact a system as possible, that maximizes the design opportunities when I'm not constrained to building specific sized enclosures.
Each leg will have its own controller, each controller will be networked together. A seperate onboard computer will be used for overall controll/coordination and process any incoming external commands from myself. Another controller will be used for general body sensors (such as tilt, GPS, troubleshooting system, etc). It will be pretty loaded computer wise when it's done!
I'm using a Kickstarter project 32 channel digital radio system for external control. This is a pretty sweet radio that uses the propellor chip and a XM radio module, 4 potentiometers and several configurable switches. This will be the primary means of sending commands to the main controller.
I still have to build and program all this but that will be my fall and winter project once the mechanical parts are done. Of course it won't ever really be done but this will be a fun platform to experiment with and add new sensors and capabilities over time.
I'm using a Kickstarter project 32 channel digital radio system for external control. This is a pretty sweet radio that uses the propellor chip and a XM radio module, 4 potentiometers and several configurable switches. This will be the primary means of sending commands to the main controller.
I still have to build and program all this but that will be my fall and winter project once the mechanical parts are done. Of course it won't ever really be done but this will be a fun platform to experiment with and add new sensors and capabilities over time.
(You said XM, think you meant Xbee. Well.. a robot playing music is nice, but we want it to walk)
When it comes time for modules and programming, I'm sure there will be a LOT of help from the forums. We all want to say "It's alive!"
That's the Controller - I realized I typed in Xbee wrong but forgot to go back and make a correction. Music is nice but unnecessary for this situation!
The programming part will be interesting. I'll be using inverse kinematics to prevent the leg tips from sliding on the ground. I've found several examples of how to use IK using servos, those will have to be reworked to run with DC motors with analog feedback from potentiometers. I'm using a lot more IO than the Hexapods I've seen that use IK which is why I'm going with one controller per leg. It would be nice to be able to do it all with a single propellor board but that much IO would just be a bit too much for it to handle.
I'm sure I'll be visiting the propellor forum a lot once I start programming to ask questions. I'm sure I will be asking for advise and help from whomever wants to get involved. It could be a fun group programming effort!
@DiverBob and Publison, our FAE Daniel Harris helped Quantum Robotics on the code for that controller. Daniel wrote some really functional, simple Spin/ASM transmitter code. I'll get him to post a copy on this thread.
@DiverBob and Publison, our FAE Daniel Harris helped Quantum Robotics on the code for that controller. Daniel wrote some really functional, simple Spin/ASM transmitter code. I'll get him to post a copy on this thread.
I've got the transmitter from the Kickstarter project, now I have to put it together. They have a very nice on-line guide for its assembly with lots of pictures.
Quantum robotics also did a very nice implementation of IK in a hexapod and he shared his spin code with me to use as a starting place. There will have to be a lot of changes since he uses a single prop chip and servos and I'll have multiple props running DC motors through HB-25's using feedback for positional control. I want to utilize the existing Prop library of objects as much as possible to cut down on the programming time. There will have to be a lot of experimenting to get everything to work together smoothly. I would someday like to also implement behaviors aka Rodney Brooks style into the robot to give it a more independent existence.
If I tried to do all this on my own it could take years to get it implemented, I'm hopeful there might be some folks out there that might be interested in a collaborative effort and see what kind of a cool monster it could be!
As per Ken's request, here is the code I wrote for the 2-gimbal Quantum Transmitter. I also wrote the mating receiver code. Note that your XBees need to be configured to serially communicate at 115,200 baud, instead of the standard 9600 baud. This is because so much data is being sent, the XBees need to be able to chuck it in/out quickly. Each packet is verified with a CRC32, and discarded if the data is invalid.
I'm taking a break while the next set of parts is anodizing. I can do 2 knee pieces in 72 minutes as I'm limited by the size of my power supply. That leaves one more knee and 3 lower leg sections to go! Of course there is dyeing and sealing stages to go also which will take the rest of the day.
Very late night finishing work on the spacers. Also finished hand tapping all the 6-32 holes in the knee blocks. Then it was time to start anodizing. Only have a few pieces to finish up today but should be ready to start assembly of the remaining legs. I'm thinking I might have all the legs together by the end of next weekend! I still have to assemble the gear reduction units for 5 legs but that should go by quickly.
I did a late night mistake on the knees, I put the numbers on upside down again! I think the robot is trying to tell me something so I'll leave it like that and just have to have a good explanation when people see it. Photos will be posted latter.
Grins or grimace, upside down numbers are now part of the tale. My current project has seen a couple of new parts due to fabrication mistakes, but the worst mistake I ever made was 15 years ago on a wood-working project. I was making a two-drawer lo-boy dresser. The front legs had 5 mortises and a taper. The outside edges had to be rounded over on the router table, so I picked one up and promptly rounded over the wrong edge. That was a 10-hour mistake. I hope not to set a new mistake record in the future!
While putting together the lower leg assemblies I noticed an excessive amount of space on one of the spacers. I determined that they were supposed to be 1.990 inches long but I had cut them 1.900 instead, 0.090 short which translates to 0.045 on either side. So back to the lathe and fabricate 5 new spaces. I'll anodize those in the morning. Otherwise things are going fairly well. It's important to make sure all the leg pieces are exactly parallel with each other otherwise there will be rubbing which will cause a lot of problems.
Grins or grimace, upside down numbers are now part of the tale. My current project has seen a couple of new parts due to fabrication mistakes, but the worst mistake I ever made was 15 years ago on a wood-working project. I was making a two-drawer lo-boy dresser. The front legs had 5 mortises and a taper. The outside edges had to be rounded over on the router table, so I picked one up and promptly rounded over the wrong edge. That was a 10-hour mistake. I hope not to set a new mistake record in the future!
Back in the early days of manual milling when I knew enough to be dangerous, I had a part that was fairly complex, tight tolerance bore, slotting, slitting cut needed, angles, rounded pocket, ect. Somewhere over 1.5 weeks worth of evenings were invested. One mistake on the rotary table and poof it was destroyed in a way that was not possible to compensate for and was scrap. I had to go take a drive because I want to "Hulk SMASH" the whole shop that night. I used it for a time as a reminder to not decide to skip double and triple checking because things were going well so far.
One of the biggest butt-pucker projects I made it through though was turning a solid 7" round of hot rolled steel into a chuck adapter for a new Bison set-true chuck. That was days of turning and setup just to get the exterior roughed out not to mention it was not a cheap hunk of steel. The internal threading and spindle register bore were the hardest parts and they had to be done last more or less. I managed to get it right though and was real pleased with the outcome. I guess a level of confidence helps. The more nervous I get about screwing it up it seems the more likely I am to screw it up.
For some reason I mess up more on the mill still than the lathe. I think because the lathe is often more straight-forward. Most times on the CNC mill it's a forgotten offset that ruins my afternoon.
Comments
I did re-arrange my basement workshop for a location for the new lathe which should be showing up in the next 2-3 weeks. It may take a while to get it down into the basement since it weights around 1250 lbs. I'll attempt to disassemble as much as I can first.
I received the optically clear 12" acrylic sphere and a a 5" diameter clear acrylic tube to mount the sphere on. This will go on the top of the computer level and will eventually contain a pan and tilt unit with a video camera attached. This will allow remote operation of the robot without actually having to be near it. Plus I think it will look cool!
Would you be willing to disclose your source of the Optically Clear 12" acrylic sphere?
I'm both interested in the source and exactly the acrylic material
If it's something propriotary, I understand.
Just wondering.
Didn't do anything on the robot this last days off period, came down with something that is going around work and didn't have the energy or ambition to get downtown the shop. I did receive the shoulder bolt order so now I'm set for creating the leg cross pieces on the lathe. I also got a notice that the new lathe is in PA getting the DRO installed. Should have it freight shipped in the next couple of weeks.
My next days off is Tuesday/Wendsday so if I'm feeling better should get much more done!
I got notification that the new lathe will be shipped by the end of the week, should see it sometime next week.
The leg mechanism moves nicely and is very sturdy with almost no 'slop' when a sideways force is applied. This is important since there will be a lot of force on the sides of the legs during normal walking motions.
The leg looks nice, will have to get the camera down in the workshop and get some photos of the first production leg next to the test leg. I still need to find a way to shine up the gold highlights on the leg, they are in recesses so they are harder to get the polish in there and then buffed out. This may have to be done by hand only. I'm liking the look so far, only 5 more legs to go!
I need to document the cross brace dimensions and sizes, and the spacers used in each location so I don't end up disassembling this leg multiple times and all the legs are identical. That may be tonight's project before heading into work at 10PM.
Bob
I have almost all the parts anodized for building two more legs and then I need to finish up anodizing the rest of the already made parts. There are still some additional items to complete such as the gear trains for the other legs, the leg down switch assembly and a limit switch setup for side to side movement. The plan is still to have all the mechanical parts done in time to take this to the Unofficial Parallax get together in Norwalk, Ohio this fall.
The attached photos are of the 8 spacers for 2 legs and the leg pivot assemblies completed and attached to the robot base.
Hope you enjoy the video, let me know if you have any questions
Bob
Cut up a 1.5 by 2.5 aluminum bar in to 5 pieces needed for the 'knee' on each leg. This part is done manually on the CNC mill because each side has work done on it and the setup for each side takes a lot of time to get it right.
Otherwise everything is going well, one leg is 95% completed with only a few remaining parts to fabricate from scratch. The leg down micro switch block on the knee is one part to create. There is also the limit switch assembly for the rotation axis that needs to be re-done, the original layout had only one switch, the new one will use 2 switches instead. There are still 38 cross ties remaining to make for the legs (8 per leg) and gear train shafts to finish up on the lathe. That's all the parts I can think of right now. Of course that doesn't include any bright ideas I might have for revisions! I'm trying to avoid revisions unless some just flat out won't work.
Here is a photo of the completed leg, a partially done leg and the original test leg for comparison. The next shot is the body with all the pivot assemblies attached.
The new lathe arrived a few days ago. I've been disassembling it to get it down to a weight that I can get it into the basement with the help of a few friends! It's bigger than I imagined, don't expect to outgrow this one anytime soon!
Stand for lathe
Otherwise I finished anodizing another 27 parts, almost done with all the machined parts so I need to start making the final parts for the legs. This weekend I won't get too much done, Saturday, several friends are coming over to assist in moving the lathe parts into the basement. I asked for strong backs and weak minds, it seems that no one who previously helped with moving the mill to the basement are available. Once the lathe is down there I need to reassemble and clean it which will take some time.
So there isn't much to report on, I'll keep you informed!
I've been making the cross over spool pieces for the legs. These are fairly simple designs and they are good practice for getting used to the lathe.
The new lathe is excellent! It still needs to be aligned but that isn't critical for these smaller pieces. I will have most of the parts completed for 4 legs by the end of tonight. Still have to mill out the knee blocks which is a fairly slow process but progress is still being made.
I started working on assembling the 3rd leg and decided I really needed to get working on the knee housings. With only one knee completed I have 5 more to go. Unfortunately these parts would be best done on a CNC lathe but the mill works OK, its just slower. The photos show the partially assembled leg and what the finished knee looks like.
I cut out the 5 blocks of aluminum, these are 1.5 x 2.0 x 4, fairly nice sized blanks. All 5 blanks were machined to the required dimensions. I finished the initial screw and alignment holes are drilled on 3 of the blanks. On 2 of these I then cut off a 0.5 slice that is used as a centering device for the lower leg.
I'll have to wait for the next weekend to do any more as I'll be away in training for my real job that pays for all my toys...
Bob
I got the warranty replacement cutting tools so I can get back on the new lathe and finish cutting out the few remaining spacers and shafts for the gearing assembly. That pretty much finishes up the metal cutting work, just a few pieces to complete anodizing and then ready to put it all together!
Each leg will have its own controller, each controller will be networked together. A seperate onboard computer will be used for overall controll/coordination and process any incoming external commands from myself. Another controller will be used for general body sensors (such as tilt, GPS, troubleshooting system, etc). It will be pretty loaded computer wise when it's done!
I'm using a Kickstarter project 32 channel digital radio system for external control. This is a pretty sweet radio that uses the propellor chip and a XM radio module, 4 potentiometers and several configurable switches. This will be the primary means of sending commands to the main controller.
I still have to build and program all this but that will be my fall and winter project once the mechanical parts are done. Of course it won't ever really be done but this will be a fun platform to experiment with and add new sensors and capabilities over time.
Bob
As big as it's getting, I'm almost getting afraid to go to the Expo!
Bob,
Are you using this controller? It looks sweet:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1757054094/xbee-handheld-controller
(You said XM, think you meant Xbee. Well.. a robot playing music is nice, but we want it to walk)
When it comes time for modules and programming, I'm sure there will be a LOT of help from the forums. We all want to say "It's alive!"
That's the Controller - I realized I typed in Xbee wrong but forgot to go back and make a correction. Music is nice but unnecessary for this situation!
The programming part will be interesting. I'll be using inverse kinematics to prevent the leg tips from sliding on the ground. I've found several examples of how to use IK using servos, those will have to be reworked to run with DC motors with analog feedback from potentiometers. I'm using a lot more IO than the Hexapods I've seen that use IK which is why I'm going with one controller per leg. It would be nice to be able to do it all with a single propellor board but that much IO would just be a bit too much for it to handle.
I'm sure I'll be visiting the propellor forum a lot once I start programming to ask questions. I'm sure I will be asking for advise and help from whomever wants to get involved. It could be a fun group programming effort!
Bob
I've got the transmitter from the Kickstarter project, now I have to put it together. They have a very nice on-line guide for its assembly with lots of pictures.
Quantum robotics also did a very nice implementation of IK in a hexapod and he shared his spin code with me to use as a starting place. There will have to be a lot of changes since he uses a single prop chip and servos and I'll have multiple props running DC motors through HB-25's using feedback for positional control. I want to utilize the existing Prop library of objects as much as possible to cut down on the programming time. There will have to be a lot of experimenting to get everything to work together smoothly. I would someday like to also implement behaviors aka Rodney Brooks style into the robot to give it a more independent existence.
If I tried to do all this on my own it could take years to get it implemented, I'm hopeful there might be some folks out there that might be interested in a collaborative effort and see what kind of a cool monster it could be!
Bob
As per Ken's request, here is the code I wrote for the 2-gimbal Quantum Transmitter. I also wrote the mating receiver code. Note that your XBees need to be configured to serially communicate at 115,200 baud, instead of the standard 9600 baud. This is because so much data is being sent, the XBees need to be able to chuck it in/out quickly. Each packet is verified with a CRC32, and discarded if the data is invalid.
Cheers,
Daniel
Very late night finishing work on the spacers. Also finished hand tapping all the 6-32 holes in the knee blocks. Then it was time to start anodizing. Only have a few pieces to finish up today but should be ready to start assembly of the remaining legs. I'm thinking I might have all the legs together by the end of next weekend! I still have to assemble the gear reduction units for 5 legs but that should go by quickly.
I did a late night mistake on the knees, I put the numbers on upside down again! I think the robot is trying to tell me something so I'll leave it like that and just have to have a good explanation when people see it. Photos will be posted latter.
Bob
Bob
Back in the early days of manual milling when I knew enough to be dangerous, I had a part that was fairly complex, tight tolerance bore, slotting, slitting cut needed, angles, rounded pocket, ect. Somewhere over 1.5 weeks worth of evenings were invested. One mistake on the rotary table and poof it was destroyed in a way that was not possible to compensate for and was scrap. I had to go take a drive because I want to "Hulk SMASH" the whole shop that night. I used it for a time as a reminder to not decide to skip double and triple checking because things were going well so far.
One of the biggest butt-pucker projects I made it through though was turning a solid 7" round of hot rolled steel into a chuck adapter for a new Bison set-true chuck. That was days of turning and setup just to get the exterior roughed out not to mention it was not a cheap hunk of steel. The internal threading and spindle register bore were the hardest parts and they had to be done last more or less. I managed to get it right though and was real pleased with the outcome. I guess a level of confidence helps. The more nervous I get about screwing it up it seems the more likely I am to screw it up.
For some reason I mess up more on the mill still than the lathe. I think because the lathe is often more straight-forward. Most times on the CNC mill it's a forgotten offset that ruins my afternoon.