![MultiMachine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/MultiMachine.jpg)
The multimachine is an all-purpose
open source machine tool
A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...
that can be built inexpensively by a semi-skilled mechanic with common hand tools, from discarded car and truck parts, using only commonly available hand tools and no electricity. Its size can range from being small enough to fit in a closet to one hundred times that size. The multimachine can accurately perform all the functions of an entire machine shop by itself.
The multimachine was first developed as a personal project by Pat Delaney, then grew into an open source project organized via a
Yahoo! group. The 2,600 member support group that has grown up around its creation is made up of engineers, machinists, and experimenters who have proven that the machine works. As an open-source machine tool that can be built cheaply on-site, the Multimachine could have many uses in developing countries. The multimachine group is currently focused on the humanitarian aspects of the multimachine, and on promulgating the concept of the multimachine as a means to create jobs and economic growth in developing countries.
The multimachine first became known to a wider audience as the result of the 2006 Open Source Gift Guide article on the ''
Make
Make or MAKE may refer to:
* Make (magazine), a tech DIY periodical
*Make (software), a software build tool
*Make, Botswana, in the Kalahari Desert
*Make Architects
Make Architects is an international architecture practice headquartered in Londo ...
'' magazine website, in which the multimachine was mentioned under the caption "Multimachine - Open Source machine tool".
[ ]
Uses
As a general-purpose machine tool that includes the functions of a
milling machine
Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying direction on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of d ...
,
drill press
A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to i ...
, and
lathe, the multimachine can be used for many projects important for humanitarian and economic development in developing countries:
* Agriculture: Building and repairing irrigation pumps and farm implements
* Water supplies: Making and repairing water pumps and water-well drilling rigs.
* Food supplies: Building steel-rolling-and-bending machines for making fuel efficient cook stoves and other cooking equipment
* Transportation: Anything from making cart axles to rebuilding vehicle clutch, brake, and other parts.
* Education: Building simple pipe-and-bar-bending machines to make school furniture, providing "hands on" training on student-built multimachines that they take with them when they leave school.
* Job creation: A group of specialized but easily built multimachines can be combined to form a small, very low cost, metal working factory which could also serve as a trade school. Students could be taught a single skill on a specialized machine and be paid as a worker while learning other skills that they could take elsewhere.
Accuracy
The design goals of the multimachine were to create an easily built machine tool, made from "junk," that is nonetheless all-purpose and accurate enough for production work. It has been reported to be able to make cuts within a tenth (
one ten-thousandth of an inch), which means that in at least some setups it can equal commercial machine tool accuracy.
In almost every kind of machining operation, either the work piece or the cutting tool turns. If enough flexibility is built into the parts of a machine tool involved in these functions, the resulting machine can do almost every kind of machining operation that will physically fit on it. The multimachine starts with the concept of 3-in-1 machine tools—basically a combination of metal lathe, mill and drill press—but adds many other functions. It can be a 10-in-1 (or even more) machine tool.
Construction
At a high-level, the multimachine is built using vehicle
engine block
In an internal combustion engine, the engine block is the structure which contains the cylinders and other components. In an early automotive engine, the engine block consisted of just the cylinder block, to which a separate crankcase was attac ...
s combined in a
LEGO-like fashion. It utilizes the
cylinder bore
In a piston engine, the bore (or cylinder bore) is the diameter of each cylinder.
Engine displacement is calculated based on bore, stroke length and the number of cylinders:
displacement =
The stroke ratio, determined by dividing the bore by ...
s and
engine deck (where the
cylinder head
In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often abbreviated to simply "head") sits above the cylinders and forms the roof of the combustion chamber.
In sidevalve engines, the head is a simple sheet of metal; whereas in more modern ...
would mate to via the
head gasket
In an internal combustion engine, a head gasket provides the seal between the engine block and cylinder head(s).
Its purpose is to seal the combustion gases within the cylinders and to avoid coolant or engine oil leaking into the cylinders. Leak ...
) to provide accurate surfaces. Since cylinder bores are bored exactly parallel to each other and at exact right angles to the cylinder head surface, multimachine accuracy begins at the factory where the engine block was built. In the most common version of the multimachine, one that has a roller bearing spindle, this precision is maintained during construction with simple cylinder re-boring of the #3 cylinder to the size of the roller bearing outside diameter (OD) and re-boring the #1 cylinder to fit the overarm OD. These cylinder-boring operations can be done in almost any engine shop and at low cost. An engine machine shop provides the most inexpensive and accurate machine work commonly done anywhere and guarantees that the spindle and overarm will be perfectly aligned and at an exact right angle to the face (head surface) of the main engine block that serves as the base of the machine. Use a piece of pipe made to fit the inner diameter of the bearings as the spindle. A three-bearing spindle is used because the "main" spindle bearings just "float" in the cylinder bore so that the third bearing is needed to "locate" the spindle, act as a thrust bearing, and support the heavy pulley. The multimachine uses a unique way of clamping the engine blocks together that is easily built, easily adjusted, and very accurate. The multimachine makes use of a
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
and steel construction technique that was heavily used in industry during the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and resurrected for this project.
References
{{Reflist
External links
Open source machine website
Machine tools
Open-source hardware