[rowbare]

Outstanding work Kelly!

bob

[hive8]

Had quick question what do you do to your part after you finished milling, is that sand blasting or something?

[skray775]

Thanks guys,
The finish is a glass bead finish from a sand blast cabinet. It leaves a nice finish on the aluminum.

Here you can see the contrast on some Golf Bag Tags I have been making.

[skray775]

I have been playing around lathe ops on the mill and after a few days of trying different setups I decided to build a jig to hold a quick change tool post I am using on my manual lathe.

With the same semi auto tool change script I use for my TTS system I can switch out lathe tools without having to deal with the Y axis or trying to program g54-59 offsets for the tooling.

[rowbare]

Great idea. I like it!

bob

[skray775]

Ding, Ding, Ding.... bonus points!

The Tormach tooling fits into the boring bar holder and screw clamp holds it firm!

[skray775]

I haven't gotten back to the lathe setup yet because I need to get this 700 size heli kit finished.

Here are a few pictures of the prototype.

I really need a good way to hold this down for milling. I can get 2 half's of the upper frame from a single 6"x24"x3/16" plate but it starts to get shaky near the end of the operations and the middle has a tendency to bow up.

I was thinking of a fixture plate of 3/4" aluminum, 6"x24" with holes drilled and tapped to match the holes in the frame. Then mid way through the operation adding the screws to help hold it down... but we are talking 3mm screws and I am not sure that is the best solution.

Any idea's?

[SCzEngrgGroup]

You could mill out the inside cutouts, then make plates slightly smaller than the outside perimeter, and screw those to the fixture to hold the parts down, then mill the outside.

Regards,
Ray L.

[rwskinner]

I would probably run the drilling and countersinking op first on x number of raw plates, then put my jig in place and screw the drilled stock on it and do all the other ops/profiles. Work holding makes me scratch my head more than anything else.

Richard

I was thinking of a fixture plate of 3/4" aluminum, 6"x24" with holes drilled and tapped to match the holes in the frame. Then mid way through the operation adding the screws to help hold it down... but we are talking 3mm screws and I am not sure that is the best solution.

Any idea's?

[rwskinner]

On the lowers, I don't see that there is enough screw holes to hold it down across the top unless the top ledge was milled then drilled and the screws were put in after that and the clamps removed? Or, like Himy said, change the clamps after the inside profiles were done.

Richard

[skray775]

On the lower frames I used the plate idea on the prototype. I cut out the center sections then during a tool change I added a clamping bar across the mid section.

On the upper I used tabs, total pain to clean up after but OK for the prototyping.

I think the plate idea will work. screwing and unscrewing a bunch of 3mm SC screws will get old and time consuming not to mention swarf in the holes.

Have any of you used corian for fixture plates? I was thinking that might be less expensive then aluminum plate.

[skray775]

Today I finally had to use a 1/32" end mill that ha been taunting me for months! LOL This mill keeps surprising me with what it can do.

It looked so small I though for sure this would snap off in a second. In the video I used it to profile the bee and then switched to a 1/16" to cut out the pockets.

Making a Custom Golf Bag Tag - YouTube

Here is a picture of the part.

[skray775]

I also cut some stainless steel parts using the mill as a lathe. The stainless was great to work with.

Mill as Lathe Optimize - YouTube

[fretsman]

Nice work there, may I ask what setup you use for your misting system (coolant, air power?)

Nevermind, found it in your other videos!

Thanks for sharing,
Dave

[rowbare]

I also cut some stainless steel parts using the mill as a lathe. The stainless was great to work with.

Mill as Lathe Optimize - YouTube

Nice work. What grade of stainless did you use?

bob

[skray775]

Bob, that was 303 stainless. I thought it cut really well and the finish was nice.

Fretsman, the mister I used is home built unit. If you look back 10 - 20 pages I posted pictures and a link to the plans I used. I just made a few mods to the plans based on what I had available.

[arizonavideo]

Nice little lathe part done on the mill.

Can you explain a little about the CAD and CAM process?

[skray775]

Nice little lathe part done on the mill.

Can you explain a little about the CAD and CAM process?

I'm away from my other computer but will post the G-code for you to look at.

[skray775]

I am sorry I forgot to post the lathe gcode.... I will try and get it off of my office machine and post it up for you.

In the mean time here is something I made for myself today.

[rwskinner]

That is sweet looking. What type of material and thickness?

Richard