I've made several of these Turners Cubes over the years when I was in the US Air Force, most of the time to teach younger Airmen that you could square a part in a lathe using a 4 jaw chuck. I never used a holding ring nor did I use the hot glue. Each cube was cut from the inside one to the outer one. Sometimes we would heat the cube and freeze a steel ball from a bearing and drop it into the center cube, when everything went back to room temp the steel ball was captured in the smallest cube. This was also a way to teach new guys coming in to a machine shop to think outside of the box to come up with ways to machine parts. You have to understand, that back in the 1970's and in to the late 80's or 90's most of our shops were still using machinery dating back to WWII and we didn't have a lot of tooling like downtown shops or factories had. So we had to come up with ways to use the tooling on hand and make tooling that would work to fix and or make parts for aircraft. It was a real learning experience during those times.
Thank you for your service, I just recently join the Air Force and got lucky enough to get Metals Tech. Its easily the most satisfying job in the AF, I love every minute of it! I've got to make me one of these in the shop ASAP
there are some very clever people on this planet. I used to use a lathe for 15 years but i was no where near as good as this.Absolutely fascinating to watch
Brilliant! My father made one of these on his hercus lathe, though it was smaller and only three nested cubes. He didn't use hot melt glue, but instead machined matching stepped concentric cylinders to plug the holes as he went along. The cube was just a 'proof of concept' before he went ahead with the dodecahedron version, of which he made three copies. I could send you a photo if you are interested. Thanks for posting.
Having made a couple of these, I fully understand why you so very seldom see them for sale. They are (usually) hand made and take a good deal of time (and skill) to make. When you make a nice one, you keep it! When you make a nice one or two, you move on to a more productive use of your time. If you make them on a CNC machine, which I consider cheating, it is a piece of cake. These are beautiful decorations, but otherwise worthless. They were used, so I understand, to train apprentice machinists how to do set ups and simple machining. If done old school, They had to be removed between each step for measurements by the Master Machinist, then reinserted and the next step cut. That can get to be a LOT of to-ing and fro-ing if you make a 4 or 5 cube Turners cube, but when done correctly, they would teach an apprentice a lot about accurate machining.
Fantastic movie! Thanks! In the first year of high school in Norway - Machine and mech, year 1985, we made such cubes. Instead of glue, we made four precise spacers that locked the inner cubes at the last cuts. We were not allowed to use measuring equipment in machining, just measure at the hanballers from center etc. The teacher finally measured everything with micrometer and gave grades. My cube is under the PC screen and reminds me who I really are.
@@deconteesawyer5758 I'm going to guess that he's talking about the handwheel scales. If so, that would be the ultimate challenge, but also a great exercise in understanding backlash.
the finest piece of work from a Master Machinist that I have ever seen. All old school and perfect! It was a privelege to see your work. Thank you so much!
When I saw the finished cube at the start of the video I thought "impossible." But now I've watched the entire video, I still think it's impossible. Wow!
Very nicely done. Plain old denatured alcohol will dissolve hot melt glue. One could use automotive body filler to hold everything solidly together for machining the last step, and just placed the finished piece in acetone to dissolve the body filler. Lathes and mills teach one patience. Thanks for taking the time to film and post for all.
It is so funny! I learned this 53 years ago. Made about 3 pices. The last one around 1985 just to impress my friends at a high-tech, silicon-valley company. I thougt, only I know about this, but here it comes. - I have used a large soft collet patron instead of the chuck and made a spring load puller fitted in to the collet inner tread, to make it easy for the final cut. - Great work! Thank for share!!
Just a random idea regarding avoiding the hot glue mess. If you were to make multiples of this, It would probably be worth it to make a stepped down cylinder that matches the diameters of the various successive holes in the cube. 3 of those inserted and secured would hold everything in place and be easily removed at the end of the process, and be reusable on other parts. If I were going to do more than 1, I'd definitely make a set like that.
Wow. I absolutely love the work you put into that. the thinking, planning, math, attention to detail, sanding and polishing turned into a gorgeous work of art. I'm sure you get a million questions from people that see it asking how you got those cubes inside the bigger one. Thanks for the video, you sure make this look so easy (but we now know it takes a lot of planning and skill). Amazing job.
Made a cube in a cube in a cube 31 years ago at 18 years old. No such thing as hot melt glue back then. Didn't use a cylindrical holder either just a good old 4 jaw. Undercut tool was just ground on a normal pedastal grinder. The 3rd cube had holes all the way through so a piece of round bar small enough to go through the cube was placed in the cube then either a very strong piece of elastic or rubber band went through the hollow machine spindle and was secured under tension at the other end. Once the cubes were set free the tension pulled the cubes cleanly away from the cutting tool.
Use Denatured alcohol and the hot glue will just pop right out, no heat necessary. this project is badass, when i get a lathe that is going to be at the top of my list
I found that the internal grooving tool, if ground from tool steel can be a bit fragile when cutting the release grove for the larger radius cubes. Its dimensions are based on the smallest cubes and with the larger cubes the the tool is put under some chatter stress when striking a void at the outer edges of the cube. The answer I found was that to have at least two grooving tools, perhaps even three. The outer cutter one can be made much stronger and able to cope with the chatter because it doesn't need to fit into the 6mm hole. I hope this helps someone else.
Thank you for sharing, Sir during my machinist school years we had to make a part in the lathe, (south Ben 9) of our own design, and made a cube but I would have dream to make what you show in the video, it was the most interesting work I have seen thus far, thank you. Have a nice day from the distance, (Montevideo-Uruguay) stay safe.
I knew, that machining these cubes is tricky. But i couldn't imagine, that it is such a time consuming and precision metal art work. Until i saw this video. Great job, Sir, thank you very much for sharing it with us.
Hi themetalcuttter i just turned 1 up from aluminium really enjoyed maching it even though i have been working as fitter/machinist for 40 years a good test of trade skills, The cube is more difficult than it looks! As stated before it is turning project .thanks Dibbo
Great video, and as a machinist inspired me to make all the platonic solids from solid brass, The are all nested similarly. The icosahedron particularly tested my patience.
First of all Congratulations. What you did can only be appreciated by people who did some fine works. Now you have a beautiful piece all ones would like to have. Before you had the imagination, the calculations, the strategies, the right tools, lots of patience and someone around to stimulate and incentive. As a former electronic engineer now at 77 I still amazing to see people to do marvellous things like you did. Take care
You made a real nice job there,. I remember a couple of my pals making these back in the 70’s when I was an apprentice turner. They didn’t use a ring or hot glue...they had to be very careful on the final faces and they did the machining for the small cubes first if I remember correctly... they they put them in a tumble polisher to remove the burrs... I always wanted to make one but never got rount to it... maybe when i retire I will buy a small lathe and make one.. great video!
When cutting for a camera that gets in the way, you can hook the camera to a live monitor and use that to watch the part and cutter. If you have good enough resolution, you can see even better than direct observation.
Very nice work and great results! Fun to watch if one is a machinist! P.S. A DTI is a dial test indicator. You are actually using a DI or dial indicator. DTI's have a lever, DI's have a plunger. I could be wrong, but that's what I was taught.
yea I like the machine sounds :D there's something so intrinsically beautiful too about this metal being freshly exposed for the first time to the light after a couple seconds in that lathe, it's just so damned beautiful.
Damn. I'm sorry I watched this. Now I have to head off to the workshop :-) Done similar in wood but never thought of metal. Thanks for the demo. Regards, Ruaidhri
I'm actually just finishing mine up right now in my trade school. I only faced two sides on the round stock with the lathe and I made the other faces with a milling machine. We don't have a working 4 jaw chuck so I had to use what I could take. So what I did was take a scrap piece of round stock and bored out the middle until the cube fit in it and cut a slit in the top of it to compress the cube inside the piece while it was inside the 3 jaw chuck
I have to be honest, I'm not really sure how I ended up here. Must have clicked without thinking, but I have to say I can't remember a video I've enjoyed more. You are, without doubt, a true master. I personally haven't used a lathe since school and that was 40 years ago. This video, however, has reminded me just how much pure pleasure it gave me. So, after seeing this, I will be buying a lath, just as soon as I can figure out where to put it. decisions, decisions lol. seriously though, Thank you!
after soaking in hot water and removing the bulk of the glue, soak it in grease and wax remover and the glue will desolve into nothing and job done thanks for the working dimensions well done
i skipped through a bunch, but wow, this is amazing, at 1st thought it was a bunch of independant cubes, then near the end, i was like oh thats impossible, so its just square in squares.... then you filed it with glue, i still didnt know until the last shots.. then i had to go back an watch you separate them. Great job!
Excellent video and craftsmanship. I got lost a few times though, especially with the floating table. I think a running commentary or even just a narration would positively impact this video 100%. Thank you for sharing your time, effort' and expertise, much appreciated! ☺
I love this video. Not just the nice work on the lathe. But also the great filming from the different angles. And especially the silence, I love it. Keep up the great videos
That is just a plain beautiful piece of art! I have seen simular things done in wood with a simple forstener bit, but this just tops it off! Very nice work! :)
+themetalcutter hello friend very good your video I'm from Argentina please show me the formula that is the outer and inner diameters and depth. thank you very much're a genius !!!
Great stuff to watch. The multiple cubes can also be produced on a vertical mill using a universal boring head. This is an equally challenging exercise as turning in the lathe
Thanks for this unconventional but very useful and entertaining video. And thanks especially for the shots of the marker board at the end and the closeups of the various drawings and critical dimensions!
Absolutely amazing! I would like to do this, but I only have a regular grinding wheel, so I am not sure I can make the undercut tool. Using the hot glue for the last cut is brilliant!
Looks like a great project drew it up in 3d solids and going to leave smallest cube out and have only 2 inside main cube .Going to make it at work out of aluminum....thanks for the idea
Superb workmanship, from the care in grinding the tool to attention to detail and accurate measurement. Well done. If I might make one suggestion, dont use auto focus so much. Some important shots are blurred as the rear end of the tool catches the focue away from the work. That said great workmanship and a joy to display. Thanks for the video.
In the parts when you use sand-paper/cloth to polish the facets I recommend to use a plastic/wood means instead if a screwdriver, this is a very dangerous practice. Very nice work, Cheers!
Jaak Dejonckheere amazing. upperclass craftman. looking the video is simple....making the triple cube is another story. even my wife want to see it again. there we go.
