[UniqueMachining]

For the last couple of months I have been concentrating on learning CAM in preparation for making parts using jigs. Vises are handy but their limitations quickly become evident.

First came Visual Mill which was included years ago with the mill. Struggled with it for two to three months before deciding it was more aggravation than it was worth.

A friend had recently gone down the same road and switched to BodCad. He convinced me to try it and offered to help get over the learning curve. Despite my misgivings, I gave it a whirl. (The parts shown here were done using BobCad). His guidance along with the multitude of training videos, produced very satisfactory results. Like any program it has its quirks and requires that you master them. Now that I have leapt over the learning hurdle, it is actually very quick and efficient. Excepting a few tweaks here and there, goodbye manual coding. More on BobCad later.

The first task was to make a table plate 30 x 18 x 1' with 3/8-16 tapped holes spaced 1' on X and 1/2'' on Y, for a total of 379. Fortunately, I have an excellent relationship with a local machine shop and he had some free time. Voila, three days later, one awesome table plate. Not wishing to totally abandon my trusty vises, I mounted them on 1/2" aluminium plates. This allowed shimming the vise to the mounting plate and aligning the mounting plate to the table plate. (PICs). Much faster to switch to a vise setup when required. If only I had a young buck to lift the sucker.

The immediate need for jigging involved making 28 parts (2.75 x 1.28) from a single 12 x10 x 1/4" plate. My first attempt utilized conventional clamps but resulted in
...1.Relatively long tool projection for clearance
...2.Did not solve the inevitable part bowing.
...3 Did not provide for repeatable alignment.

To overcome these shortcomings I realized that a two part jig would be required. The first half would align the part along the total length (X) and determine height (Z).
The second half would clamp along the total length (X) and project only a 1/4" above the part.

My first run yielded less than stellar results. I neglected to compensate for the bow in the 12 x 10 plate. For the second run I mounted the plate bow down, included a second 1/4' sacrificial plate (under), placed 2" spacers under the middle of the plate then clamped along X. Worked perfectly and ended up with only 3/16" waste along X..
Once milled, the plate has to be cut horizontally into 7 pieces of 4 parts each, mounted at 75 degrees in another jig and 4 holes drilled and countersunk, then cut vertically into 4 parts.

Next project is to make up a table plate for the Pulsar. Program written in BobCad for the Torus Pro, just have to get to it.

Gotta love jigs.

John

[keithmcelhinney]

That is awesome!

[ram48]

Pretty cool set-up

[CROSSHATCH]

Nice, I like your fix table

Do you plug the non-used holes?

[UniqueMachining]

SpeedsCustom

I've found the easiest solution is thick aluminum foil covering the unused area of the table.
Giant roll for $10.00 and can be made to fit around just about anything, quick and cheap.
Suggest you buy your own roll as the better half may not be amused.

John

[LeeWay]

I was about to suggest covering unused holes as well. I used a plate on my smaller mill for awhile and the holes pack so tightly, that drilling and retapping is the best solution to clear them out again.

Aluminum foil is a good choice. Hadn't thought or heard of using it, but makes perfect sense.

Your jigs are great as well.