[crazybrit]

Hi

First I'm a newbie so I've tagged this post as such.

I bought my first CNC lathe and mill. They came from surplus and are missing a few parts. I'd like to make them. Note, this is a long term plan. I don't plan to make them as my first project(s) as I need to begin much simpler but I am curious as to the general practicality of the task.

- The first is a tooling plate. It attaches to a rotary changer. Mine came missing the plate. I bought an entire new changer with plate but I'd like to make a replacement plate.

- The second is a tool holder for a mill pneumatic automatic tool changer. The holder is no longer in production. I was able to find one. I realize it's probably easier to adapt a different holder still in production such as a Tormach but I'd like to try making replacements.

My questions:

- What material would you make these from? Some kind of tooling steel? Or is that unnecessary for work holding? Can anyone recommend a good resource that discusses the basics of material selection for particular tasks? Obviously it's a wide ranging topic that could rapidly get complex for very specific tasks.

- For the blackening I assume they dipped them and then did a thin cut to selectively remove?