# Pictures of things made in Home Shop CNC



## Cadillac STS

Can this be a new sticky thread?  See lot of interest in doing Home Shop CNC but not many pictures of actual parts made. Even internet wide not so many pictures of what has actually been made.

Let's see people show off things and others get ideas of what is possible!


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## Bill Gruby

Done.

 "Billy G"


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## Gunner

I'm logged in as Gunner (Active Member) and it appears to be unlocked.  If this actually posts.

Yep, it's now open.  

As this is supposed to be for photos, I'll delete this in a day or three.


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## 09kevin

I made this just to look at  



Kevin


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## JimDawson

That is very cool!


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## brav65

That is wicked cool as we say in New England!


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## gheumann

I make custom wood harmonica microphones. The shells are made out of exotic woods. The grills are made out of aluminum or brass. The grill blank is turned from solid stock on the lathe, then the grill slot pattern is done on my CNC mill.

/Greg Heumann
http://www.blowsmeaway.com


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## 09kevin

That's very nice!


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## brav65

Greg I love it!  Thanks for sharing.


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## jumps4

In 2006 I purchased my first lathe and mill from Harbor Freight with no idea how to use them
since then I have built (converted to cnc ) all of my cnc equipment from scratch not kits and have a lot I'd like to show...
I have photographs of my small cnc machines building parts for 
	

		
			
		

		
	









	

		
			
		

		
	
 my larger ones but here are a few examples of some nice parts I have made
I don't wish to flood the thread but I have a lot more if there is interest.


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## rdean

I never get tired of your projects keep them coming.

Ray


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## bpratl

Jumps4, great looking projects, you have been an inspiration for me to convert my machines to CNC. The lathe is done now attacking my mill. Bob


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## Cadillac STS

Custom QCTP tool holders to hole one inch tools in my manual lathe


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## gt40

Cadillac STS said:


> Custom QCTP tool holders to hole one inch tools in my manual lathe


That looks really nice- what material did you make them out of?


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## bpratl

Great looking machine work.


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## Cadillac STS

gt40 said:


> That looks really nice- what material did you make them out of?



They are mild steel.  Just off the mill.  They were made from rusty 3 inch cubes.  Right now they are covered with WD 40 and I will be using them so they will have some regular oil on them for corrosion.  I'm considering methods to coat them for corrosion resistance but unsure what to do.


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## gt40

Cerakote works pretty well...


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## kvt

They look nice,   I've been looking at blackening some steel pieces but have not got everything together yet.    Also have to build a Knurler,   guess I could blacken them then knurl them.


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## Cadillac STS

kvt said:


> They look nice,   I've been looking at blackening some steel pieces but have not got everything together yet.    Also have to build a Knurler,   guess I could blacken them then knurl them.



What would you use for blackening?  I've heard dirty motor oil then heat in an oven is one method.  And does it cause corrosion resistance?


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## kvt

I have been looking on line at some of the other forums.   They are using a hot dip system.   and adding carbon to it.  I belive soda ash, and potassium something.   I have it on order, but have not gotten it all in yet.   Hope to before the weekend.   Also have to clean the metal real good before then.  I will keep advised when I get t done.


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## jumps4

I did a few pieces in the oven with oil a while back and they came out with an uneven finish.
after cleaning they were just gray but haven't rusted.
Steve


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## RVJimD

I didn't make this, my friend Joe has the same mill as me but he converted his to CNC.  One of his first projects was to make a spindle lock wrench for the mill to replace the piddley little soft one that comes with the mill that everyone breaks cause it is a loose fit and too soft.  The mill he converted is the popular to G0759.  The wrench is aluminum with a steel pin insert and a set screw to lock the pin in position.  What a great upgrade, thanks Joe!




Jim


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## jumps4

that came out nice
the chamfered edges really makes it look professional.
Steve


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## bgraves

09kevin said:


> I made this just to look at
> Kevin



Looks amazing!


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## RVJimD

I don't know if this is a good thread?  Makes me want to convert my mill and I didn't need any more reason to do it before you guys started posting pics of the stuff you have made!  

Kevin, I need to think for a bit to figure out exactly how the heck you made that beehive ball thingy.  You better be careful with that computer in the shop.  I can hear you now, "Hal, ...Open the collet Hal.  Hal, open the collet please..."

Jim


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## jbolt

Cadillac STS said:


> What would you use for blackening?  I've heard dirty motor oil then heat in an oven is one method.  And does it cause corrosion resistance?



Look at the black oxide kits from Caswell. Not quite as good as the hot bluing process but they do a pretty good job and much less expensive to setup. Less hazardous too.

http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits.html

Jay


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## 09kevin

Jim
[QUOTE="

Kevin, I need to think for a bit to figure out exactly how the heck you made that beehive ball thingy.  You better be careful with that computer in the shop.  I can hear you now, "Hal, ...Open the collet Hal.  Hal, open the collet please..."

Jim[/QUOTE]


Jim, I do talk to my computer sometimes when it doesn't do what I want  

The part is 3.0" in diameter and it is 2.5" across the flats so I was able to make all the cuts in the vise. I used an .063 wide slitting saw to cut the grooves around the sphere, I didn't take any pictures of that operation 


This is the first operation



2nd operation



3rd operation was to index part against the stop and machine the tapered step cuts






Kevin


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## jumps4

That's kewl
Great pics
Steve


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## dracozny

I think that would be a cool shifter knob!


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## 09kevin

This is a 4th axis project I did for fun.

Stock held with 3 jaw chuck on the 4th axis




Roughing 4" diameter




Machining the tapered pockets




Finished project








Kevin


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## T Bredehoft

I ran CNC   at work,  never had the opportunity to play, now I wish I had the capability, but can 't rationalize it.  I've become pretty proficient with MNC and that allows me to make things, but you can't play with MNC. [MNC, manual numeric, etc. ]


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## jumps4

these are for repairing stripped spark plugs in aluminum heads
Steve


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## Boswell

Very nice Kevin. A few questions if you don't mind.
 Was this your design?  
 How did you address the "attachment" point? 
 What was your approach to polishing?


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## 09kevin

Boswell,

I designed this part, I just started doodling with my cad program until I came up with something that looked interesting and would be fun to machine.

I circle milled a half inch hole thru so I could use a 1/2-13 stud that I threaded into a spud that was held in the 3 jaw chuck. I wasn't really worried about the part being concentric or I would have machined a one piece spud on the lathe, I was surprised that the part ran within .005 when I checked it.




I need more practice polishing! I use fine sandpaper then use a buffing wheel with polishing compound. There are probably some good tips I could use on polishing in this forum, I just haven't taken the time to search for them.

Kevin


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## 09kevin

jumps4 said:


> View attachment 98704
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> these are for repairing stripped spark plugs in aluminum heads
> Steve



Steve,

Those are nice!  Do you Loctite the inserts into the head?

Kevin


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## jumps4

Hi Kevin
Yes you Loctite them in and wait 24 hours before running.
you also use never seize on the spark plug threads.
There are a few pics making them in my 9x20 Cnc lathe build thread here 
http://hobby-machinist.com/threads/9x20-lathe-cnc-conversion.8692/page-5
Steve


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## icepick method

Love your work Kevin. Have you seen Chris Bathgate's stuff?


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## 09kevin

Thank you!  Chris Bathgate's stuff is amazing!!!  He is very talented for sure.


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## Dracen knights

figured while 'm pretty new here I know everyone likes pics so I'll share a few of my projects.

This one is a jewelry box I made for my wife this last X-mas it's 6.25" around and 3" deep the bowl part was made on a manual lathe from a solid piece of 6061 aluminum I had laying around. The wall thickness is  .125 The lid all the way around and the base as well. The lid was a sheet of .120 thick 6061 that was also waiting for a project to claim it. there is a total clearance of .0025 on each side. this was cut on the cnc and tabs was used to hold it when cut.

I have one other project I'll show off as well in the next post.


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## Dracen knights

ok so here is the chess set I made as well. This was done on a hass lathe.
 both side are solid 6061 aluminum  the back two tone side was powder coated and the the final milling steps where done o give it the added two tone look. plus you'll find I'm one of the odd balls that love the look of tooling paths in a great finish. I simply like to see who things where cut, yet leave a smooth mirror like finish.  I'm assuming this pics well be big therefore I'm leaving them as thumbnails for now.


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## jumps4

the engraving is nice but wow the chess set is great, the finish looks really good.
and I like tool paths myself
Steve


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## Dracen knights

thanks man Now I just need to make a new chess board the one in the pic is for my marble chess set I got when I was in the sand box. I should get more close up pics of the chess pieces. I'm also currently working on a lot of tooling setup and mill lathe mods that will all be done on cnc.


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## Boswell

The Chess set is fantastic. I like the two-tone look for the Black set. (and the tool marks  )


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## Dracen knights

thank you very much.  I guess with all the responces ill try to get new pics tonight that show the tooling and two tone better.


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## wa5cab

Cadillac STS,

Are those 1" tool holders AXA, BXA or CXA?  Probably the latter but if they are AXA, would you sell just one of them?  I have a 12x36 with an AXA (100 Series) QCTP and I need exactly one 101 style tool holder for it that will hold the 1" tall Armstrong style shank on a nice corner rounder that I bought.


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## Glen

Ok it's not nothing fancy, but here is a pencil and piece of wood I turned on my cnc lathe after writing the gcode


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## Dracen knights

figured I would add the pics here of the new handles made for both my mini cnc's


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## 09kevin

Those are really nice!  About how long did it take to make one?


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## Dracen knights

Honestly not sure because i machined all 6 at one time simpky repeating each step 6 times untol they where all ready for the next step it toke around 10 hours to load in the machines. Edit a lot of items like tools and doing re measurements and tons of other items that comes along.


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## Cadillac STS

What software did you use to draw the CAD for the handles?  What CAM?


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## Dracen knights

Mastercam


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## markknx

kvt,
would love it if you do a thread on the blackening you do. I have used heat and dip in oil with some success, the two things I found most important with this method is clean steel, and even red heat, but you can't let it scale. also cold bluing is a quick way to get a nice looking finish. Clean oil and baking at around 400 deg F I have got a kind of antique  bronze looking finish. (I was going for black but it looked so cool I left it)
Mark


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## jumps4

I haven't posted anything lately so I thought I would put up this weeks project.
I have a friend who has a winch for his parasail that he pulls behind a truck.  The winch works fine
except on the rewinding of the line, you have to guide it onto the spool by hand to keep it from piling up in the center or one side.
  He asked me to design a level line system like what is used on power winches and some fishing reels.
I needed to make a self reversing diamond thread shaft. These shafts are probably manufactured on a purpose built machine because
I could not find any information where someone has shown how to make one. So I figured it out after a day of trial and error.
I have included the emachineshop drawing and I'm wrapping the two lines around the Y axis 6 times in a length of 5" in d2nc to make the screw.
the zip file has the dxf file the emachineshop drawing and the tap file made with d2nc (g-code) for mach3.
with a .125 4 flute carbide endmill at 50 degrees per minute and 6000 rpm it took 12 hours to rough out and 1.5 hours for finish passes.
Thanks for viewing
Steve


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## jumps4

here are pics of designing and making the follower for the screw. If you look close you can see the compound angles. This was a prototype to check my code the actual one will be brass.
Steve


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## jumps4

This is the first test runniing of the self reversing screw prototype parts.
The final parts will have bronze oilite bushings and a brass follower.
Thanks For Viewing
Steve


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## Boswell

That is Awesome.


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## markknx

Cool Steve, that is really awesome.
Mark


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## bpratl

Very impressive design, layout and machining operations. You obviously love  challenging  projects.


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## REdington

That's just awesome, Steve


  Rodney


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## jumps4

Thank you for your kind words
I have to admit I find the challenge of figuring out how to make something with the tools I have built and the skills I have learned more interesting than watching the machines run for 12 hours....
 In total it took 4 days to figure out how the get the machine to produce the screw and machine it and the follower.
feeds and speeds was an issue, my mill's spindle only turns 1980 rpm and that's slow for a 1/8" cutter. I began with that but 9 hours in and at only .060 deep
the cutter must have caught a burr and it snapped. ( this cold roll was really gummy ) at that rate the machine time would have been over 18 hours. I went with my high speed spindle then at 6000 rpm and this caused a different issue. the cutter is turning so fast it does not grab the material with every tooth and it will skip and jump unless it is under a lot of side force to maintain contact and consistent chip load. once I got it set correctly the second cutter survived the remainder of the job and is still sharp.
 A problem in mach3 I have found is that it does not know the diameter of the stock in the rotary axis that the cutting speed for surface compared to rotary is wrong. the speed calculated for the cutter was 12 Ipm at 6000 rpm but when translated to rotary at a 1" diameter the actual speed had to be increased to 50 ipm and that equaled 50 degrees of rotation per minute. 
   All the software I use is either free or very low cost, Emachineshop for cad, D2nc for cam, G-Wizard CNC Calculator for speeds and cutter deflection and Mach3 for control.
Steve


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## TomS

Steve - you never cease to amaze me.  No matter the challenge you have a knack for figuring out complex machining problems.

Tom S


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## gheumann

Very Cool, Steve!


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## TomS

The bozo that installed the cabinets in my son and daughter-in-law's kitchen decided he didn't need to layout the screw holes so he drilled them by eye.  You can imagine how crappy that looks.  So I'm making 40 cabinet handle escutcheons that will allow me to drill correctly laid out screw holes and hide the mis-drilled holes.  The escutcheons are made of 6061 aluminum, are 1-1/4" wide by 6" long.  The step is 1/16" wide by 1/16" deep.  Not a complicated part but I get to use my CNC mill.  What could be better?

Tom S.


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## 09kevin

Nice job Tom!


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## JimDawson

I can't think of a better project for a CNC at home!


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## TomS

09kevin said:


> Nice job Tom!



Thanks


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## TomS

JimDawson said:


> I can't think of a better project for a CNC at home!



Me either.  Thanks.


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## derf

How does it work actually winding line? Just curious about the rate of traverse compared to the the rate of filling the spool with line. No doubt the spool speed and the screw speed are different,no?


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## jumps4

Nice work Tom, all the little things add up over time to make large projects easier to figure out.

Derf, the line is not laid down on the spool at a set pattern, always against the last pass.
but more of an uneven ratio so it will not spool up on itself.
Steve


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## TomS

Since I got my high speed spindle up and running a couple of weeks ago I've wanted to do some text machining.  This is what I came up with.  It's about 4-5/8" x 9-3/4".

Tom S.


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## bpratl

Looks good, is that a placard or a cover for a piece of equipment?
What text software did you use and how long did it take to machine with your high speed spindle?
 Bob


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## TomS

bpratl said:


> Looks good, is that a placard or a cover for a piece of equipment?
> What text software did you use and how long did it take to machine with your high speed spindle?
> Bob



First I'd like to say thanks to those that helped me get through some software glitches.  Without their help I'd still be scratching my head trying to figure it out.

Yes, it's a placard for my mill.  My focus was to learn engraving but I also wanted to make something that wouldn't be useless when I was done.  I use the eMachineShop CAD program for drawing.  It has a text function that I used.  It was a bit of a learning curve to figure out but I got it done.  My CAM software is D2NC.  It's a fairly basic program and I had issues it with too.  For some reason it did not like the letter "S".  Kept locking up the program.  My work around was to change the top line from "CHIPMASTER" to "CHIPMAKER".  After doing that everything worked as it should.   

Using a 1/16" 3 flute HSS end mill at a .005" DOC with 50% stepover I cut all the letters in about 27 minutes.  Total DOC is .030".  For info the RPM was 26,000 and feedrate was 79.5 IPM.  I could have used a 1/8" end mill and and cut them in about 10 minutes but I don't have a 3/8" collet for my router, yet.

Thanks for asking.

Tom S.


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## chevydyl

Does you software do text-to-curve? That's a fun one, I use BobCAD-CAM which does the cool fit text to curve. Glad to see that you got your router cutting it up. Nice job


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## TomS

chevydyl said:


> Does you software do text-to-curve? That's a fun one, I use BobCAD-CAM which does the cool fit text to curve. Glad to see that you got your router cutting it up. Nice job



What is text-to-curve?  Is it text aligned to a radius as opposed to a straight line?   

The router works great.  Cuts down significantly on cycle time.

Tom S.


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## chevydyl

Yes it is tom, not only a radius on a flat part, but also planer, like a 3d roll if you will, it will fit curves in multiple axis


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## TomS

chevydyl said:


> Yes it is tom, not only a radius on a flat part, but also planer, like a 3d roll if you will, it will fit curves in multiple axis



Ah!  I understand now.  I don't think my CAM software has that feature but will check it out.  I run D2NC which is a fairly basic program.

Tom S.


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## Metal

So after seeing battlebots on TV, I decided thats a thing I needed to do.
With some investigation, I found out there are pretty frequent smaller weight class fights in the north east, so then this happened

CAD:



And the reality (every part machined on my hobby mill!)


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## Jonesturf

Metal said:


> So after seeing battlebots on TV, I decided thats a thing I needed to do.
> With some investigation, I found out there are pretty frequent smaller weight class fights in the north east, so then this happened
> 
> CAD:
> 
> 
> 
> And the reality (every part machined on my hobby mill!)


Can you make a video of it wrecking something like a teddy bear?


Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk


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## Metal

Jonesturf said:


> Can you make a video of it wrecking something like a teddy bear?
> Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk



Its taken apart right now for the second version, it punches through 1/8" steel I dont think something like that would be very entertaining, just a teddy bear getting a hole popped into it.


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## jbolt

While I am waiting for my new lathe I had a chance to work on the CNC router. I need to make some machine button labels and a control box cover plate out of engraving plastic. I thought I would try my hand at a small vacuum table. This is the first go around. I have an old vacuum pump I though I would try so I went with a grid system that uses rubber cord to section off the areas to be clamped. 

The table is made from two pieces of 3/4" MDF with air channels cut in the middle section where they are glued together. The passages when assembled are 0.260" square. I'm not sure if this is enough or not. The channels were sealed prior to gluing to avoid pulling air through the MDF. The top board has a 1/4" through hole at the end of the channel.





I was not sure how tight the channels needed to be I cut them 0.200" for a 0.250" cord. This has turned out to be too tight. I later found a thread on the net where the channels are cut 0.010" under in width and 0.020" in depth so I will re-cut those. Here is the first grid cut with several coats of sealer. The cord I'm using is 1/4" OD silicon tubing I already have. I'm not sure the tubing is ridged enough to create a seal. If not I will get some solid rubber cord.




The inlet ports will be drilled and tapped for a 1/4" IP thread. Each port will have a mini ball valve connected to a manifold. I did some pressure tests on the vacuum pump I have and it is only pulling 15 inches. It is only a 1.5 CFM pump so I'm betting it will not work as planned. I have a 5 gallon air tank I will try and use as a pre-chamber to see if I can get an initial pull and then see if the vacuum pump can maintain the seal. Vacuum pumps are pretty inexpensive these days so I may look at a new one if this does not work. 

If I can get this to work the next question will be if the thin 1/16"  engraving plastic will pull flat enough to engrave properly. The simple thing to do would be to use double sided tape to hold the plastic but whats the fun in that!


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## jbolt

I changed the oil in my vacuum pump and it is now pulling 27 inches so that's good. The silicone tubing does not seem to be working so I got some 1/4" soft burna rubber cord. I re-cut the grid to 0.240" wide. The rubber cord is a little tight but not bad. With one port hooked up I can pull a vacuum on 1/16" and 1/8" metal but the 1/16" engraving plastic is is not stiff enough to get a seal. I'm still not sure if the volume is too low with the pump only being 1.5 cfm. I see other systems using 5 and 6 cfm pumps. I'm still waiting for some fittings to do the manifold.


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## jbolt

I got the manifold put together and everything plumbed. I also picked up a 5 cfm 2-stage pump. The Burna rubber cord works great on thick material but not on the thin materiel. With the higher cfm pump the silicone tubing works on the thin plastic. I'm only getting 7-8 inches of vacuum. I'm not sure what I should be expecting. I'm thinking a square gasket may work better. There is a company called AllStar that sells gasketing material specifically for vacuum fixtures so I'm going to try some of that.


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## TomS

I've been wanting to put side mirrors on my Can Am Commander for a while but couldn't come up with a good enough reason to spend $200 to $300.  So I did some searching on eBay and found a set of mirrors that had the features I wanted and the price was right, about $35 for the pair.  I won't bore you anymore with my gibber gabber.  Here are pictures of the finished product.


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## talvare

Made this a few years ago for my Mom's 86th birthday gift. It's a little CNC and some manual work.

Ted


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## tackit

It's great to see so many cool projects.      I'll never get to you guys levels of machining but I get ideas from your work  that I might be able to use on building some of my lesser skilled projects.   Thanks to all for the pictures.


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## compsurge

Nonsense.  It takes practice and determination to learn new skills and achieve success in your projects. Give it time. And a lot of scrap


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## countryguy

simply AMAZING!!!   Would love to see you consider a YouTube video of a project end to end.  I would be so interested in watching how you do this great work! 



jumps4 said:


> In 2006 I purchased my first lathe and mill from Harbor Freight with no idea how to use them
> since then I have built (converted to cnc ) all of my cnc equipment from scratch not kits and have a lot I'd like to show...


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## countryguy

Fun post.  Good idea.     A Plasma gantry machine torch holder.   Mounted a $20 air spindle to engrave with,  and the Son and I did a cool Axe that came out better than we newbs anticipated.   Best of all, it was a super fun Dad/Son event!


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## wayne.inspain

bloody hell!!!! that stuff is fantastic, so much to learn, I started this hobby toooooo late in life,   lol


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## jumps4

countryguy said:


> simply AMAZING!!!   Would love to see you consider a YouTube video of a project end to end.  I would be so interested in watching how you do this great work!


 I'm sorry for the slow reply, My lists I follow keep getting wiped out so I don't get an email.
I have 81 videos on Youtube some good some not very good quality.
search for       jumps42009
Thank you for your interest
Steve


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## old school machinist

Beautiful workmanship! It all starts with a vision. Nice work.


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## Metal

Hey guys, working on the 2nd version of that fighting robot a few posts up, It would be a HUGE boon if someone with a 4th axis could turn out 2 parts for it, rather than I try a hokey convex cutter plan to make it >.>


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## 09kevin

Metal said:


> Hey guys, working on the 2nd version of that fighting robot a few posts up, It would be a HUGE boon if someone with a 4th axis could turn out 2 parts for it, rather than I try a hokey convex cutter plan to make it >.>




Hi Metal, What do the parts look like? When would you need them? What material are they made from?

Kevin


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## Metal

Hey Kevin, the next fight is 10/8, so hopefully a little before that to make any adjustments, I need two of them, and honestly I could machine the entire thing minus the pulley groove myself, I just have no way of cutting that kind of thing since it is an eccentric cam... pulley... thing, to try and get more velocity out of the hammer

image link: https://s10.postimg.org/3n7ajrpgp/camshaft.jpg


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## 09kevin

Metal said:


> Hey Kevin, the next fight is 10/8, so hopefully a little before that to make any adjustments, I need two of them, and honestly I could machine the entire thing minus the pulley groove myself, I just have no way of cutting that kind of thing since it is an eccentric cam... pulley... thing, to try and get more velocity out of the hammer
> 
> image link: https://s10.postimg.org/3n7ajrpgp/camshaft.jpg


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## 09kevin

I can't see the "V" shape of the pulley in the picture but, I think if you used a keyway cutter with a full radius you could 3D the V profile and it would be easier than cutting the part on a 4th axis with a form cutter or small ballnose endmill


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## Metal

Its a round groove, I'm going to give a shot with a convex cutter if that doesn't work... time to redesign!


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## cs900

How about a scratch built 3d printer?


everything but the linear rails and extrusion were machined on my PM45 conversion.


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## Boswell

That 3d Printer looks pretty nice. I also looks like a large build volume. Does it have a heated bed?


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## cs900

Boswell said:


> That 3d Printer looks pretty nice. I also looks like a large build volume. Does it have a heated bed?


yes sir, it has a solid state relay powering a 110VAC mains heating pad. gets up to temperature in about 90 sec. The build table is made from a slab of Mic6 so the heat distribution is great as well. The build volume is decent size. If I recall correctly it's around 10"(x) x 10"(y) x 11"(z). I'll have to check my soft limit settings  to see the exact size.

If any one is interested I can get more pictures of it.


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## Metal

Gunrunner you need to order a set of these for the Z axis hand crank. Bill did you just spit coffee on your monitor? :rofl:

View attachment 253356


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## TomS

I was able to buy a set of aluminum factory rims at a good price to replace the steel ones on my Can Am Commander.  The center caps mount on the steel rims and on the aluminum rims they mount on the hub.   The problem is the hubs are not drilled for a center cap.

This gave me the opportunity to make some parts using Cambam which I purchased a couple of months ago.  Can't say I didn't make a few "extra" parts but I did learn a lot.  

Tom S.

Original steel rim and cap.



Aluminum factory rim.  No place to mount the center cap.



I made four of these adapters to mount the center caps to the hub.  The center hole is a slip fit over the 18mm threaded end of the spindle.  The larger counterbore is for a 1-1/16" socket.  New style center cap on the right.



Here is the adapter and cap mounted on the hub.



And with the wheel installed.


----------



## TomS

Put in a few more hours playing with Cambam and was able to finish up a gas cap for the Commander. 

Tom S. 


All operations came out as planned except for the text.  Not sure what caused the "tails".  The letters don't look anything like my drawing.



The threads were the hardest part.  They are 3/32" radius, about .110" deep and 1/4" pitch.  Had to cut them by hand cranking the lathe spindle because my reflexes aren't quick enough to keep from crashing the cutter into the shoulder under power.



And here it is installed.


----------



## Boswell

Tom, that is a very nice looking fuel cap. How did you the Infil painting?  The threads look great.  A few times I have used the powerfeed until I got close then stopped the motor with the gears engaged so I could turn the last bit by hand. Especially on Inside threads into a blind hole.  I seam to remember having some un-expected motions on Text when I was using CamBam. I don't think I ever got to the bottom of it before I moved to BobCad.


----------



## jbolt

Looks great Tom. Have you ever cut threads from the back side of the part with the spindle in reverse?


----------



## TomS

Boswell said:


> Tom, that is a very nice looking fuel cap. How did you the Infil painting?  The threads look great.  A few times I have used the powerfeed until I got close then stopped the motor with the gears engaged so I could turn the last bit by hand. Especially on Inside threads into a blind hole.  I seam to remember having some un-expected motions on Text when I was using CamBam. I don't think I ever got to the bottom of it before I moved to BobCad.



Actually the painting was easy.  I dipped a screwdriver into the can of paint and let it drip into the cavities.  That was it.

Tom S.


----------



## TomS

jbolt said:


> Looks great Tom. Have you ever cut threads from the back side of the part with the spindle in reverse?



That would have worked except my lathe won't go into reverse mode.  I've been meaning to fix it but haven't made it a priority.  Shame on me.

Tom S.


----------



## JimDawson

TomS said:


> All operations came out as planned except for the text. Not sure what caused the "tails". The letters don't look anything like my drawing.



That looks like ''holding tabs'', could you have put a value in the holding tabs field?


----------



## Groundhog

Tom, I make emblems that have lettering and designs similar to the lettering on your fuel cap. The "tails" I experience are usually from wayward entry and/or exit settings of the cutter. So much so that a lot of the time I just slow the feed rate way down and do not use a ramp (helix, 3D path, etc) entry at all - just plunge at each level. For some of the fine detail I am using a high-speed spindle with end-mills in the neighborhood of 0.010", so easy entry is important.













USMC



__ Groundhog
__ Sep 18, 2016





 USMC emblem is about 2.25" diameter

As a side note, I've managed to figure out ways to powder coat the designs instead of paint. Makes for a very durable product. Finish is usually either satin, burnished or polished to a chrome-like surface.


----------



## TomS

JimDawson said:


> That looks like ''holding tabs'', could you have put a value in the holding tabs field?



Jim - I checked and tabs were not selected.

Tom S.


----------



## TomS

Groundhog said:


> Tom, I make emblems that have lettering and designs similar to the lettering on your fuel cap. The "tails" I experience are usually from wayward entry and/or exit settings of the cutter. So much so that a lot of the time I just slow the feed rate way down and do not use a ramp (helix, 3D path, etc) entry at all - just plunge at each level. For some of the fine detail I am using a high-speed spindle with end-mills in the neighborhood of 0.010", so easy entry is important.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> USMC
> 
> 
> 
> __ Groundhog
> __ Sep 18, 2016
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> USMC emblem is about 2.25" diameter
> 
> As a side note, I've managed to figure out ways to powder coat the designs instead of paint. Makes for a very durable product. Finish is usually either satin, burnished or polished to a chrome-like surface.



I think you hit on it.  I had "tangent with a .125" radius" set as my leadout setting.  I'll play with it in the morning.

Couldn't open your attachment.  I get a forum failure error.

Tom S.


----------



## Groundhog

Attachment is just a picture of an emblem I made. Am I doing something wrong when I add the image to the post?


----------



## TomS

Groundhog said:


> Attachment is just a picture of an emblem I made. Am I doing something wrong when I add the image to the post?



This is the error I'm getting.  

Tom S.

*The Hobby-Machinist - The FRIENDLY Machinist Forum - Error*
You do not have permission to view media within this album.


----------



## Groundhog

I made an album to save the picture in instead of saving it to "members area" as I have before. I just noticed that the album is not for public viewing and I don't know how to make it public. So I moved it to the members area. Can someone tell me how to make my album public?


----------



## cs900

not a whole lot of CNC lathe work here. Lets see if we can change that. Finished up a stainless shift knob for my buddies GTI today.







had to make a split collar to hold it for the second operation


----------



## TomS

Had a slow day in the shop so I thought it would be a good idea to setup my tool rack with a numbering system.  I rarely have a job that takes more than four tools but it's always in the back of my mind that I not pick up the incorrect tool.  Having them in a numbered rack hopefully will lessen the likelyhood that will happen.  

Tags are 1/16" x 9/16" x 1-3/8" held in with a couple of #6 screws.






Tom S.


----------



## cs900

TomS said:


> Had a slow day in the shop so I thought it would be a good idea to setup my tool rack with a numbering system.  I rarely have a job that takes more than four tools but it's always in the back of my mind that I not pick up the incorrect tool.  Having them in a numbered rack hopefully will lessen the likelyhood that will happen.
> 
> Tags are 1/16" x 9/16" x 1-3/8" held in with a couple of #6 screws.
> Tom S.



Tom, I do the exact same thing with my tool holder. You may want to go one step further if you have a standard tool numbering and write the number of the tool on the holder as well. It's a good back-up in case "someone" puts a holder back in the wrong spot.


----------



## TomS

I've been watching the Fusion 360 video tutorials and playing around with it for a couple of months with the intent of learning enough to do some 3D machining.  I finally got to where I can generate workable gcode.  Here's a few pictures of my first attempt.

Tom S.

The two holes are not intentional.  I used material from my scrap box and the holes were already there.  I had tried some code at 1" total stepdown that didn't work out so well.  This attempt was done at 1/2" total stepdown.  That's why there are machining lines lines that show up just below the edge radius. 



I roughed out the general shape with a 1/4" carbide end mill leaving .020" all around, then followed up with a 3/8" ball end mill semi-finishing pass taking .015" DOC.  Finish pass was with the same ball end mill at .005" DOC. 



The finish could have been smoother.  Still learning!


----------



## JimDawson

Looks good for the first attempt.


----------



## Boswell

very nice and inspiring.


----------



## TomS

Thanks guys.  The piece serves has no functional purpose other than a learning exercise. 

Tom S.


----------



## cs900

yeah, not bad at all for a first attempt. Only thing i would suggest is reduce your step-over for your finishing pass. I've found that around .008 step over with anything over .125 ball end mill produces a surface that's easy to sand out the remaining machining marks. Very useful if you want a polished end product.

ninja edit:
Are you using a z-level finishing technique and dropping it .005 per layer?


----------



## TomS

cs900 said:


> yeah, not bad at all for a first attempt. Only thing i would suggest is reduce your step-over for your finishing pass. I've found that around .008 step over with anything over .125 ball end mill produces a surface that's easy to sand out the remaining machining marks. Very useful if you want a polished end product.
> 
> ninja edit:
> Are you using a z-level finishing technique and dropping it .005 per layer?



I'm still playing with the CAM side to better understand the interaction among all the 3D machining strategies and their individual settings.  Too many choices! For this exercise I used adaptive clearing for the three machining passes.  Adaptive clearing is probably not the best choice for finishing but it seemed to work the best for rounding over the edges.  Still have a lot to learn.

There are minimum and maximum stepdown and stepover settings but I'm not sure how the program interprets the inputs when machining.  If I select a fine stepdown and stepover my computer takes forever to generate the tool path even though the machine time is less than an hour.  For this test my finish pass settings are:

Max roughing stepdown = .010
Fine stepdown = .006
Minimum stepdown = .005

Max shallow stepover = .010
Min shallow stepover = .005

Tom S.


----------



## cs900

Yeah, finish passes are a lot of points so they take a while to generate. you gotta pay to play as the saying goes. Adaptive clearing isn't a great option for finishing, but it got the job done. 

I'll open up fusion tonight and see what finishing options there are, if you'd like some input.


----------



## Metal

there's a checkbox for shallow areas or shallow something or other that will generate additional passes for curved areas, so you can leave a larger stepdown and it will add detail passes only where needed.


----------



## TomS

cs900 said:


> Yeah, finish passes are a lot of points so they take a while to generate. you gotta pay to play as the saying goes. Adaptive clearing isn't a great option for finishing, but it got the job done.
> 
> I'll open up fusion tonight and see what finishing options there are, if you'd like some input.



Input is encouraged.  Fusion has been a steep learning curve so any outside help is appreciated.

Tom S.


----------



## TomS

Metal said:


> there's a checkbox for shallow areas or shallow something or other that will generate additional passes for curved areas, so you can leave a larger stepdown and it will add detail passes only where needed.



Thanks.  I have Machine Shallow Areas checked as well as Machine Cavities.  As I said above I'm still learning the interaction amongst all of the selections.

Tom S.


----------



## cs900

I'll have to double check fusion, but a lot of CAM (and CAD) programs if you hover your mouse over a button you're not sure what it does and hit "F1" it'll take you to the help explanation of what it does.

I'll try looking at fusion tonight, but I think there are better finishing toolpaths than the adaptive clearing. I think that's more for large material removal.


----------



## cs900

kinda quite in here. Working on a (working) replica movie prop. some of you here might know where it's from...


----------



## Bill Gruby

Don't know where it's from but, what does the Model Engine "Glow Plug" do ????

 "Billy G"


----------



## cs900

Bill Gruby said:


> Don't know where it's from but, what does the Model Engine "Glow Plug" do ????
> 
> "Billy G"


i'll give you  big hint....


----------



## TomS

Nice work!

Tom S.


----------



## jbolt

This is why I love CNC. 10 minutes to CAD and CAM, 12 minutes to machine and another 10 minutes to debur and clean up where the tabs were.


----------



## cs900

looks great. I need to make one for my tailstock as well.


----------



## Blackhawk

cs900 said:


> i'll give you  big hint....
> View attachment 223949


logans run?


----------



## cs900

you are correct.


----------



## Boswell

I have been working on a wind powered Music box. For me this is a huge project and I expect it to take a year but mostly due to putting it aside to work on other things. Anyway, I completed the gearbox, mounting for the gearbox and the main frame pieces so I thought I would share. I have started working on the mounting for the chime bars and after that the drum and hammers.
	

		
			
		

		
	



I Bought the gears and bearings. 



Once I complete all the parts, I will sand them smooth and my vision right now is to anodize all of the aluminum.
The frame pieces were about 1/2 inch to long to mill in one setup. I milled the left half first and then if you look closely you can see a "square" hole in the middle that I used as a reference point to mill the right half. 
I also still need to counterbore some of the bolt holes for Cap head screws.


----------



## Cadillac STS

jbolt said:


> This is why I love CNC. 10 minutes to CAD and CAM, 12 minutes to machine and another 10 minutes to debur and clean up where the tabs were.
> 
> View attachment 142582
> View attachment 142585
> View attachment 142583
> View attachment 142584




Nice work!  

Good idea on the tailstock having the scale face mounted like that to see the numbers better.  

I have a similar setup but it is flat against the stock body and not easy to read the numbers because it is at an angle when looking down.  Have to retrofit mine to the angle.


----------



## jbolt

Cadillac STS said:


> Nice work!
> 
> Good idea on the tailstock having the scale face mounted like that to see the numbers better.
> 
> I have a similar setup but it is flat against the stock body and not easy to read the numbers because it is at an angle when looking down.  Have to retrofit mine to the angle.



Thanks Cadillac. I didn't want it on top of the tail stock like I see many people do because I have a tendency to lean on it while taking long cutting passes. And as you say it can be difficult to read when mounted on the side. The only drawback is it can interfere with the tool post when using a center in the tail stock. In those cases I loosen the clamping screw and slide it back on the quill.


----------



## cs900

Kinda dead in here...
I Made some pocket clips over the weekend (along with the rest of the knives) :


----------



## Boswell

Nice Pocket Clips.  The knives are not too shabby either.


----------



## burtonbr

Needed a 24mm wrench to tighten er 20 collet holders, so figured I'd just make one.  Came out real nice from a piece of cold rolled steel.


----------



## burtonbr

Some fun with fusion360 and the Tormach today, making a couple of spinners for the nephew. Thought I could get the run time down to under 30 mins, but 40 mins seemed the best I could do pushing it with the tools I have. 
They turned out pretty good, the finish is great right out of the vise.


----------



## shooter123456

I made a new bottom plate for a treadmill motor and a little panel to attach electrical connectors to.

The plate for the treadmill motor is so that I can mount it on the mill and replace the little stock one.  Its rated for a max of 2.25 HP and continuous duty at 1.3HP.  Much more than the "4/5"HP standard motor that is actually only 350W.

Here is the plate next to the old one made from pressed sheet metal. I was surprised to find that the motor only weighs about 2lbs more than the stock motor and is almost the same size physically.






Here is the plate for the electrical connectors.  The plan was originally to drill right into the wall of the enclosure into the electronics box behind it, but the connectors don't fit well, keep popping out, and are far from water proof. This one will attach to the wall and hold them firmly.  I went with 10 holes to make room for 3 steppers, 3 encoders, and room to expand to a 4th axis, plug in the enclosure LEDs, and limit switches in the future.  It was a little bit blurry and I didn't realize that until I uploaded it.  Looked a lot better on my phone.





All of these were made on my X2 mill.  In this picture, you can see the mill making the plate, as well as the connectors hanging out of the wall, hence the need for the plate.


----------



## burtonbr

Figured I'd make some knobs for my vise handles & try out some parallel finishing strategy for the first time to see how good the finish would be with a .015 stepover, at 60ipm


----------



## shooter123456

I made a bishop for a chess set I am making my dad.  The whole thing is done except bishops and knights.  I need to make a 4th axis to do the knights. This  was done by putting the stock in the collet and clamping an insert holder to the table.


----------



## burtonbr

Shooter, That's Cool !!  That is on my to do list, figure out how to do some spindle turning for parts like that...


----------



## shooter123456

burtonbr said:


> Shooter, That's Cool !!  That is on my to do list, figure out how to do some spindle turning for parts like that...


Thanks 

There wasn't much to it.  I set up a second CNC profile in linux cnc for a lathe with the head as the Z axis and the X as the cross slide.  Then clamped the insert holder to 2 1-2-3 blocks stacked as a T and while in "mill mode", indicate on the tip of the insert so that it is positioned at 0,0 for the X and Y.  Then switch over to the lathe profile and go to town.


----------



## TomS

Recently I replaced by cheap BoB with a PMDX-126 breakout board, a ethernet smoothstepper and a PMDX-107 spindle control board.  Wanting to try out the new "toys" I decided to make a couple of air vents for the new electronics enclosure.  The vents are probably not necessary but who knows what might start growing in an air-tight enclosure.

Here are the finished vents.  For reference the bolt holes are 3-1/2" on center.   



Here they are installed on the enclosure.  I sandwiched some fiberglasss window screen material between the enclosure and vent to keep out swarf and insects.




BTW - I noticed an appreciable reduction in backlash with the new electronics and no more UC-100 connection faults.

Tom S.


----------



## Boswell

They look very nice.


----------



## Poppey

Hi I have added some photos of my CNC Slant Bed Lathe in the My CNC Slant Bed Lathe album. It is running om Mach3 and works fine. I need to change the break out board as it does not support treading. I need also to shim the spindel side plate to improve the the accuracy.


----------



## Poppey

I added some 20 pix to the album but I´m not able to find them. May be I have not posted enough, this is my second post to the forum?? I read something about at least 3 posts before uploading so I will add one moer post


----------



## Poppey

Well I try with one more post


----------



## TomS

Poppey said:


> I added some 20 pix to the album but I´m not able to find them. May be I have not posted enough, this is my second post to the forum?? I read something about at least 3 posts before uploading so I will add one moer post



Your pictures posted.  Cool machine!  We see a lot on CNC mills but not so much on CNC lathes.  For the sake of us CNC nerds a write up on your build would be good reading.

Thanks for posting.


----------



## Boswell

I must be missing something. I don't see any pictures.


----------



## Poppey

I have previously build an CNC Router/3D printer and this was my fist experience with CNC. I like designing and figuring out how to do this and make that and finally building things.
I found a couple of DIY lathes on the internett and looked at "real machines", than I made the general specification and decided which components to use. I designed is in Inventor. To avoid stress in the steel I decided to build it without welding. In this design I figured it would be easier to get everything in alignement. 













CNC Lathe3



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


----------



## Poppey

Boswell said:


> I must be missing something. I don't see any pictures.


They are in the photo album section: My CNC slant bed lathe


----------



## Poppey

The structure is build with water cut steel plates. Spindel side plates are 20 mm and the ribs are 15 mm.
Here  I´m boring the spindel bore. My X3 mill just made it












IMG_1659



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


----------



## Poppey

Machining the ribs. Drilled and tapped in the same set up. A lot of tapping . Here as well my X3 was used to the limit.












IMG_0214



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017





I milled the bottom of the side plates and the ribs in the mill but drilled with a magnetic drill. I hate not using the mill DRO. I used the frame as a work bench, heavy stuff












IMG_0215



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


----------



## Poppey

Here the structure is screwed together and put on the aluminium frame.













IMG_0217



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


----------



## Poppey

IMG_0218



__ Poppey
__ Jul 22, 2017





I used a two angle contact roller bearings on the chuck side and two ball bearings on the pulley side. The bearings sit partly in the side plates and in the spindel housing.













IMG_0219



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						Spindel bearing housing
					



It turned out to be very solid and good solution.


----------



## Poppey

IMG_0222



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						Y rails mounted
					



Here with the Y rails and spindel in place.


----------



## Poppey

Milling the spindel motor bracket with partly with 













IMG_1700



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


















IMG_1704



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017





the rotary table and division master


----------



## Poppey

IMG_1770



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						SEW Eurodrive servo motor and timing belt mounted
					



The spindel motor and belt mounted. It´s an SEW Eurodive 2,2 kW servo motor that I found on ebay. It was with a gear that I removed.


----------



## Poppey

IMG_1768



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC
					



Here the frame for the ATC. Milling the index plate and tool holder was fun. This also used my X3 to the limit. Without the Division Master I would not have been able to do it.













IMG_0229



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC Index plate and tool holder. I really enjoyed machining this two components. Took a couple...
					
















IMG_1788



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						Milling the ATC tool holder
					
















IMG_1787



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC Index plate
					
















IMG_1780



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC Index plate
					
















IMG_1777



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						Starting to machine the ATC index plate
					
















IMG_0229



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC Index plate and tool holder. I really enjoyed machining this two components. Took a couple...
					
















IMG_1883



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						ATC


----------



## Poppey

IMG_1776



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017


















IMG_0224



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						X axis and auto toolchange
					



Here are the X axis in place with the ATC with its stepper motor and cylinder.
I needed to replace the NEMA 23 double stack motor with a NEMA 23 with 18:1 gear box. I spent a lot of time getting the ATC to work properly.


----------



## Poppey

IMG_0020



__ Poppey
__ Jul 22, 2017


















IMG_1936



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017



						Getting ready
					
















IMG_1935



__ Poppey
__ Jul 21, 2017





Here with the NEMA 34 stepper motor, control panel and spindel motor VFD


----------



## Poppey

Printing half of the beltguard on my 3D printer. My heated bed was not big enough to print it in one pice.













IMG_0023



__ Poppey
__ Jul 22, 2017


















IMG_0029



__ Poppey
__ Jul 22, 2017


----------



## TomS

Very Nice!


----------



## shooter123456

I made all the mounting hardware for a CNC rebuild/scratchbuild ish on my X2 mill.  That's 3 bearing blocks, 2 motor mounts, 2 ball nut mounts, and 1 motor extension.  All the cutting was done on the X2 under CNC control.



I am also working on a spindle light, some of the work was done manually on the lathe, but the drilling and cutting for the light recess was all done using CNC.


----------



## shooter123456

My small, but growing, collection of carbide insert holders were all made on the X2 under CNC control.  

From top to bottom they are:

WNMT lathe tool in aluminum
CCGT lathe tool in 12L14 steel
Right hand DCMT lathe tool in aluminum
Center DCMT lathe thool in aluminum
Right hand DCMT lathe tool in aluminum

The end mill is a .625" 2 flute CCGT end mill with a .5" shank made out of 12L14 steel


----------



## cs900

great work shooter! you're making the rest of us look bad though. haha.

on a side note, how well does the aluminum tool holder work? get any chatter from it? Also how much do you typically offset your screws for your inserts?


----------



## shooter123456

cs900 said:


> great work shooter! you're making the rest of us look bad though. haha.
> 
> on a side note, how well does the aluminum tool holder work? get any chatter from it? Also how much do you typically offset your screws for your inserts?


Well thats nice to hear! 

The aluminum works fine for lighter work. It works work turning aluminum and steels just fine, but if you push it too hard, it starts to deform the insert seat and it loosens up.  Before that happens, there is no chatter that I can fault the tool holder for. It performs as well or better than the factory steel ones I have. 

For the screws, I usually model it up and model the hole directly in the middle of the insert seat, then when I run it, I let the machine position itself, stop the program, off set it .003 to .005 (depending on insert size) toward the wall. Its been working well so far.


----------



## cs900

interesting. Why not just model it with the offset and let the program/mill do all the work?


----------



## shooter123456

cs900 said:


> interesting. Why not just model it with the offset and let the program/mill do all the work?


Initially, it was because I was having an issue with fusion getting it to model correctly (I can't remember what exactly the problem was though) and my mill had problems with losing its position so cutting the pocket then sticking the insert in and having it move to the center of the insert helped make sure it was position right. 

Now, I could probably do it all the right way, but its a habit that stuck and I hadn't considered doing it any other way until just now...


----------



## cs900

Alright shooter, i'm upping my game here.

Made some plastic injection molds the other day, and i feel like this needs explanation as i don't want to be known as the guy who makes fidget spinners for fun. I'm the vice-president of the triple cities makerspace and NY state contacted us to attend the NYS fair with an interactive booth. So I made these molds to work with our plastic injection molder. We used recycled plastic to make the spinner bodies and then let the kids assemble them. Lots of fun was had.


----------



## shooter123456

cs900 said:


> Alright shooter, i'm upping my game here.
> 
> Made some plastic injection molds the other day, and i feel like this needs explanation as i don't want to be known as the guy who makes fidget spinners for fun. I'm the vice-president of the triple cities makerspace and NY state contacted us to attend the NYS fair with an interactive booth. So I made these molds to work with our plastic injection molder. We used recycled plastic to make the spinner bodies and then let the kids assemble them. Lots of fun was had.
> 
> 
> View attachment 240748


And you said it was me making you look bad... That's awesome!


----------



## cs900

shooter123456 said:


> And you said it was me making you look bad... That's awesome!


Thanks. Heres a better picture of the actual mold. All the surfaces have a .5 to 2 degree taper on the sides, so its all done with 3d contouring and a tiny 1/16" bem.


----------



## cs900

I made an anvil...or at least the start of it...


----------



## MontanaAardvark

I got my first little steam engine running yesterday.   The CNC mill was basically a very nice drill press for locating the places to drill.  That and squaring the stock.  The majority of the project was manual lathe work, turning the flywheel and smaller, but more fiddly crank wheel (you literally cut away something like 80% of the aluminum you start with).  






It was very cool to have it start running once I gave the flywheel a good flick.


----------



## woodchucker

cs900 said:


> I made an anvil...or at least the start of it...
> 
> View attachment 243842


Was that easy to cut?  I assume a carbide end mill?


----------



## cs900

woodchucker said:


> Was that easy to cut?  I assume a carbide end mill?


It actually wasn't too bad. Yes I used carbide, but it chewed thru it with very little issues. The face mill was really the only thing that gave me pause. The top was absolutely work hardened and was pretty tough so it was a bit slow going.


----------



## Poppey

Poppey said:


> IMG_0020
> 
> 
> 
> __ Poppey
> __ Jul 22, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_1936
> 
> 
> 
> __ Poppey
> __ Jul 21, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> Getting ready
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> IMG_1935
> 
> 
> 
> __ Poppey
> __ Jul 21, 2017
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Here with the NEMA 34 stepper motor, control panel and spindel motor VFD


Now it´s up running. Automatic Tool Change are filled up with tools and works well. Had to play around with it a bit but now with the right springs it´s perfect.


----------



## cs900

very cool. I know I'm not the only one who would love a video of it in action.


----------



## Poppey

cs900 said:


> very cool. I know I'm not the only one who would love a video of it in action.


Thanks
I tried to upload a couple small ones but they ware to big. How do I go about?


----------



## cs900

I usually just host on youtube and embed the video.


----------



## Poppey

cs900 said:


> I usually just host on youtube and embed the video.


Ok, here are two I did some time ago.


----------



## Metal

Robot #2 slowly materializing


----------



## Boswell

Metal said:


> Robot #2 slowly materializing




That is awesome. Please keep sharing pictures and progress.
Are you a regular in Robot competitions?


----------



## Metal

Boswell said:


> That is awesome. Please keep sharing pictures and progress.
> Are you a regular in Robot competitions?


Yeah, a little bit, I'm hoping post-winter to have all the tools and everything in place to not miss another fight 

The idea of this one is the frame is welded 1/4" ar400 which is super overkill, and its very compact, there's a number of modular attachment points on the front and top of the frame to put all kinds of different weapons and stuff
ex:  The "tank" setup has over 1/2 of its weight in armor (1/4" ar400 wedge on the front and over 2" of armor on the sides and back)


----------



## Boswell

I think I would like to try my hand at Robot Competitions but have not run across any in the Austin Tx area. Plus a little intimidated by the probable cost to build then repair/maintain


----------



## Metal

Boswell said:


> I think I would like to try my hand at Robot Competitions but have not run across any in the Austin Tx area. Plus a little intimidated by the probable cost to build then repair/maintain



There's two smaller ones coming up in Texas

http://buildersdb.com/


----------



## JimDawson

3D tool path FAIL

This is a test of a 3D tool path to make a crimping die for a project.  On the final finishing pass something failed and the machine went crazy.  No harm done because we were testing in UHMW.  Glad it wasn't tool steel.    Still trying to figure out what the problem is.  Wading through 41,000 lines of code is a bit of a chore, but I know it's in the last few thousand lines.


----------



## TomS

Ouch!!


----------



## MontanaAardvark

Nobody writes 41,000 line Gcode files by hand, right?, so whatever it was that wrote the code barfed it up. 

It might be good to run the Gcode in a software previewer to see if it simulates as bad.  If it doesn't simulate as bad, it might be an electrical noise spike or something confused the machine.  You could do a second piece if you have the plastic to test it on.  See if it goes crazy at the same spot.


----------



## JimDawson

MontanaAardvark said:


> Nobody writes 41,000 line Gcode files by hand, right?, so whatever it was that wrote the code barfed it up.
> 
> It might be good to run the Gcode in a software previewer to see if it simulates as bad.  If it doesn't simulate as bad, it might be an electrical noise spike or something confused the machine.  You could do a second piece if you have the plastic to test it on.  See if it goes crazy at the same spot.



I found the problem, it was a botched setting in the post processor setup. This is the first 3D part we've tried, so it showed a bit issue in the software, it didn't like the YZ arc move.  That will get fixed as soon as I have time.  Just ran a couple of perfect parts, I'll post pictures later.


----------



## JimDawson

OK, I made some changes in the post processor setup and it's working now.  I need to fix the underlying problem in my software.


----------



## MontanaAardvark

I notice that the first one had a little notch in either side, right in the middle at the low point of the concave shape, and this one is straight in the same places.  

Just a coincidence or part of the problem?


----------



## JimDawson

MontanaAardvark said:


> I notice that the first one had a little notch in either side, right in the middle at the low point of the concave shape, and this one is straight in the same places.
> 
> Just a coincidence or part of the problem?



I'm not sure.  I think that was part of the original problem.  We need to do a lot more testing on some different parts to find other anomalies.  At the same time we are learning how to setup 3D parts in Fusion 360.   Next is full 4 axis profiling


----------



## shooter123456

I made a T slot table for my micro lathe.




Most of the rest of the machine was also made on CNC, its getting close to being finished.



I also made an AR15 lower.




Surprisingly, a $2 Chinese long reach end mill did a decent job.


----------



## MontanaAardvark

Very cool!  I especially love the T-slot table.  Those are sort of disposable and being able to make more is always a good thing. 

Can I ask if the AR lower is from a forging, an 80% or what?


----------



## shooter123456

MontanaAardvark said:


> Very cool!  I especially love the T-slot table.  Those are sort of disposable and being able to make more is always a good thing.
> 
> Can I ask if the AR lower is from a forging, an 80% or what?


That was the goal with the table.  I can pop the slots out and put something else on there, or if it is damaged, nicked, etc, I can just stick it on the mill and reflatten it.

The lower is billet from a solid block.  

Here is a few more pictures of that.


----------



## MontanaAardvark

shooter123456 said:


> That was the goal with the table.  I can pop the slots out and put something else on there, or if it is damaged, nicked, etc, I can just stick it on the mill and reflatten it.
> 
> The lower is billet from a solid block.
> 
> Here is a few more pictures of that.
> View attachment 247128
> 
> 
> View attachment 247129
> 
> 
> View attachment 247130
> 
> 
> View attachment 247131



Again, super cool!  

An AR lower from solid billet is on my "one of these days" list, but I have two "0% forgings" to play with.  I've already done one from an 80% lower.


----------



## JerryK

Here’s one of my want-a-be steam engines.
I just use air, less messy


----------



## JerryK

Another small project for my grand daughter a couple years ago


----------



## JerryK

I’ve been retired for 11 years and work
on these hobby projects almost every day. I actually ran
out of room and gave away many to family members.
Well anyway, here’s another one. A 3 cylinder radial
with a 8” brass propeller I bought off eBay


----------



## JerryK

I used some Acrylic on this one.
Helps educate all my grand punks


----------



## JerryK

Some 4 axis cutting with my Syil X4 plus.
This is the small head ( no ears )


----------



## JerryK

*Caution !*
Repeated viewing may cause hypnosis


----------



## Robert LaLonde




----------



## MontanaAardvark

Very cool!  The finish on the mold looks like the drawing on the top of the bait's body. 

That's going to be hard plastic, right?  I know next to nothing about injection molding, but is that what you're going to do here?


----------



## Groundhog

I've made a lot of similar lead molds for a buddy that makes bass jigs. The ones I make are small (1/2" to 3/4") and have slots to lay hooks and swivels that get molded into the lead. There are usually 3 or 4 jigs to each mold. I don't have any pictures of the finished products but will try to find a drawing or two from the cad drawings.

Here is a finished jig.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

MontanaAardvark said:


> Very cool!  The finish on the mold looks like the drawing on the top of the bait's body.
> 
> That's going to be hard plastic, right?  I know next to nothing about injection molding, but is that what you're going to do here?



That particular one is going to be used with a polyester casting resin.  I'll have two models.  One for gravity casting, and one with no gate or sprue for rotomolding.


----------



## JimDawson

If the customer had come to me and asked me to design a box that would be the most difficult and expensive to machine this design would have been it.  We'll be doing a design review and cost reduction on the next 100  units.  These were built to customer specs, not our design, and customer supplied material.  All they do is hold a circuit board.  About 3x4x1 inches.  The customer showed up on Saturday afternoon and wanted the parts Monday morning.   My son ran these while I was busy doing other stuff.



So start out with a block of Delrin



Rough pocket the center



Then start on the internal features with a 3/16 endmill



These little pins had to be done carefully so they didn't break off, about 0.130 dia.




Another view



Then build a fixture, flip the part over and pocket the bottom



Then profile the outside.  The fixture was a tight fit to keep the walls from collapsing while machining.



Top view



Bottom view



And it fits




Then fit an aluminum heat sink.  These were a bit of a pain to machine, nothing to hang on to.  Used carpet tape to hold them.



The other part of the order were these two aluminum housings.  About 2 x 3 inches.







Anchor them down with a couple of slugs that fit the pockets and profile the outside.



And the finished parts.



We got them out the door on Tuesday morning.  About 9 hours of machining time, and an hour or so of programming and setup.  The customer was a bit shocked (OK, more than a bit)  at the price, but we are not going to work for free, especially when we have a lot of other work to do.


----------



## TomS

Nice work!  I've experienced many times in my career selling custom steam turbine parts where customers design a concept components but have no idea what it takes to make it.  They usually fall out of their chair when I gave them price and delivery cycle times.


----------



## MontanaAardvark

Nice stuff, Jim!

I was looking at that and thinking that it seemed at least 95% of the Delrin was machined away and it got me thinking - is Delrin recyclable?  I've been keeping my aluminum chips (well, the bigger ones) with the idea I'm going to make a forge and make something out of them.  Can you melt down Delrin and make a block?  Is it even worth the time?


----------



## RandyM

JimDawson said:


> If the customer had come to me and asked me to design a box that would be the most difficult and expensive to machine this design would have been it.  We'll be doing a design review and cost reduction on the next 100  units.  These were built to customer specs, not our design, and customer supplied material.  All they do is hold a circuit board.  About 3x4x1 inches.  The customer showed up on Saturday afternoon and wanted the parts Monday morning.   My son ran these while I was busy doing other stuff.
> 
> So start out with a block of Delrin
> 
> Rough pocket the center
> 
> Then start on the internal features with a 3/16 endmill
> 
> These little pins had to be done carefully so they didn't break off, about 0.130 dia.
> 
> Another view
> 
> Then build a fixture, flip the part over and pocket the bottom
> 
> Then profile the outside.  The fixture was a tight fit to keep the walls from collapsing while machining.
> 
> Top view
> View attachment 249159
> 
> Bottom view
> 
> And it fits
> 
> We got them out the door on Tuesday morning.  About 9 hours of machining time, and an hour or so of programming and setup.  The customer was a bit shocked (OK, more than a bit)  at the price, but we are not going to work for free, especially when we have a lot of other work to do.



Hey Jim,

I am a little confused, if the part ended up hollow, why not just machine a contoured slug out of it rather than machining it all into chips?


----------



## Robert LaLonde

TomS said:


> Nice work!  I've experienced many times in my career selling custom steam turbine parts where customers design a concept components but have no idea what it takes to make it.  They usually fall out of their chair when I gave them price and delivery cycle times.



As a contractor I often solved problems with specialty systems that other contractors couldn't or wouldn't solve.  The thing is there is almost always a solution if the customer is willing to pay for it. 

As a **machinist I get nearly impossible to machine problems as well.  Especially since I specialize in a narrow scope of mold making.  Sometimes even when I can come up with a solution they customer proceeds to make it impossible because they want it laid out a simpler way or with fewer piecs.  Some people seem to have a problem with the basic conscept of making a square corner with a round cutter, or worse they just don't understand that you can't machine a spiral into the thickness of a piece of metal.  Only along its face.  I come up with answers and a price, and then they will waste days of my time arguing about how to do it if I let them. 



MontanaAardvark said:


> Nice stuff, Jim!
> 
> I was looking at that and thinking that it seemed at least 95% of the Delrin was machined away and it got me thinking - is Delrin recyclable?  I've been keeping my aluminum chips (well, the bigger ones) with the idea I'm going to make a forge and make something out of them.  Can you melt down Delrin and make a block?  Is it even worth the time?



I have been saving my aluminum as well, but after doing some research I've found that 6061 (my primary aluminum) does not cast well.  It tends to form large crystalline structures.  There are some tricks, but I have not had time to try them just yet.  I thought to simply to cast rough bars and rough rounds for non critical parts like feet and fillers.  Anyway, one of the tricks to casting 6061 I have read seems to be rapid cooling.  I'm not sure what that means, but once I get aorunf to building my foundry I intend to do some experiments.  I want to see the "large crystals" for myself, and then I plan to try various methods of cooling and maybe even extruding to see what I can do.  My foundry furnace might come sooner than yours as I have all the materials to build it except the burner on the shelf. 

I seem to recall that Delrin can be injection molded, but I don't recall finding Delrin pellets to go in my injection machine readily available.  I have a small plastic injection press... still in the crate on the shelf.  LOL.  I guess I have a too busy shop.

** Caveat, according to some folks I am not a machinist.  I'm just a hack, wannabee, self taught, button pushing, shade tree machinist.  LOL.  I admit I am not a highly skilled manual machinist, but I often make satifactory parts for job types I have never done before.  The funny part is sometimes folks are just happy to have somebody who takes them seriously and will make their part.


----------



## MontanaAardvark

Thanks for that, Bob.  I'm aware that the T6 in 6061 is a description of the thermal treatment, but that's about the limit of my knowledge.  

Casting my chips myself seems like a better idea than trying to sell them.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

MontanaAardvark said:


> Thanks for that, Bob.  I'm aware that the T6 in 6061 is a description of the thermal treatment, but that's about the limit of my knowledge.
> 
> Casting my chips myself seems like a better idea than trying to sell them.



I think it might.  One of the other things with casting aluminum seems to be a large amount of oxidation, and that the more surface area the more aluminum oxide you have to skim off.  Chips would be amoung the worst for that, but then aluminum cans are recycled in home foundries, and they would be nearly as bad.  Maybe worse due to the plastic liner and paint.  I think that part might be manageable with the right combination of flux, and a reducing flame to get the right heat while burning all the oxygen that enters the furnace.  I'm all arm chair when it vomes to foundry work so far though.  There is often a huge gap between theory and practice.  Since I do 99% custom work I have a lot of "mistakes" in my scrap cart.  I'll probably start with drops and mistakes before I tackle chips.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

Groundhog said:


> I've made a lot of similar lead molds for a buddy that makes bass jigs. The ones I make are small (1/2" to 3/4") and have slots to lay hooks and swivels that get molded into the lead. There are usually 3 or 4 jigs to each mold. I don't have any pictures of the finished products but will try to find a drawing or two from the cad drawings.



Lead casting molds is a large percentage of what I do.  I have to say that is a nice basic spinnerbait or buzzbait head.  I had to laugh when you said 1/2 to 3/4 was small.  I do a lot of stuff in the 1/32 to 1/4 range.  Most of my best work in lead casting molds is quite small.  Larger stuff is usually brute force.


----------



## JimDawson

MontanaAardvark said:


> Nice stuff, Jim!
> 
> I was looking at that and thinking that it seemed at least 95% of the Delrin was machined away and it got me thinking - is Delrin recyclable?  I've been keeping my aluminum chips (well, the bigger ones) with the idea I'm going to make a forge and make something out of them.  Can you melt down Delrin and make a block?  Is it even worth the time?



I have no idea.  It would be pretty hard to capture the chips, I guess you could clean out the shop vac and just suck them up.  You wouldn't want to contaminate the chips with other materials.



RandyM said:


> Hey Jim,
> 
> I am a little confused, if the part ended up hollow, why not just machine a contoured slug out of it rather than machining it all into chips?



You are absolutely right.  That would have been the best way and would have cut the machining time down.  We thought about that after we had them done.  The next batch is going to start out life as rectangular tubing or potting boxes.  The inside features are going away also.  After the inside is roughed out (about 5 minutes), the inside features take another 40 minutes with a long spindly 3/16 end mill.  This assembly is attached to another aluminum mounting plate, so the next iteration will eliminate the heatsink plate and the whole assembly will be incorporated into the mounting plate with standoffs for the circuit board.  The whole system was a poor design, but we'll fix that.


----------



## JerryK

Congratulations to your son, Jim


----------



## JerryK

The Family tree token
This little project I did earlier this year for family.
I finished with 36 pieces made of brass


----------



## burtonbr

Came up with this idea yesterday to get some machine time in and make a few presents at the same time.


Finally figured out video link


----------



## Robert LaLonde

burtonbr said:


> Came up with this idea yesterday to get some machine time in and make a few presents at the same time.



Is every one unique?


----------



## burtonbr

Well, shape and engraving are the same on each one. But they all have unique tooling marks, so yes.... LOL


----------



## Robert LaLonde

burtonbr said:


> Well, shape and engraving are the same on each one. But they all have unique tooling marks, so yes.... LOL



I almost didn't hit POST on that one.  I'm glad you took it how I ment it.  LOL.


----------



## JerryK

Some relief engraving on a RG-G breech plate


----------



## TomS

JerryK said:


> Some relief engraving on a RG-G breech plate
> 
> View attachment 249237



You're killing me with all the photos of the work you are turning out.  My mill has been down for three weeks and I'm bummed.

I'm kidding of course.  Keep posting.  You do awesome work.


----------



## JerryK

Thank you Tom,
Let me know when your running again.
I have a few hundred DXF file of just about everything.
Take care
Jerry


----------



## JerryK

TomS said:


> You're killing me with all the photos of the work you are turning out.  My mill has been down for three weeks and I'm bummed.
> 
> I'm kidding of course.  Keep posting.  You do awesome work.




OK , One more Tom.
An Accles type magaazine


----------



## TomS

JerryK said:


> Thank you Tom,
> Let me know when your running again.
> I have a few hundred DXF file of just about everything.
> Take care
> Jerry



I may do that once I get through my backlog.  Thanks.


----------



## JerryK

20 MM bottle openers  for three of my grandsons


----------



## JerryK

This might be an interesting project in 2018
I’ll have to wait until February to start, but here's an .IGES file


----------



## JimDawson

That make my head hurt just thinking about it.   Looking forward to seeing that one.


----------



## TomS

JerryK said:


> This might be an interesting project in 2018
> I’ll have to wait until February to start, but here's an .IGES file



I wouldn't know where to start.  I'm anxious to see how you do it.


----------



## JerryK

TomS said:


> I wouldn't know where to start.  I'm anxious to see how you do it.





JimDawson said:


> That make my head hurt just thinking about it.   Looking forward to seeing that one.



I don’t have a plan or know where start either.
Maybe someone out there has some answers.
I’m open to anything


----------



## TomS

JerryK said:


> I don’t have a plan or know where start either.
> Maybe someone out there has some answers.
> I’m open to anything



I'm going to be an observer on this one.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

Some not so quick... quick and easy Christmas presents.  Started out to be 8 of them.  I did two prototypes, then did a plan to make these 4 all very similar.  Destroyed two top pieces because I had the wrong speeds and feeds for stainless when cutting out the notch for the catch.  Didn't have enough time to make two more top pieces.  Still I have enough for the most important people.  They use either Parker refills or Fisher Space Pen refills.  I went with the Fisher Space Pen refills for the ones to be given out as gifts.


----------



## JerryK

I have put together a plan for the Moebius.
Created a surface for holding in a vise and
blended it into the original model. Cut all surfaces
in the top view, flip over and cut bottom view.
Last, cut soft jaws, saw off holding tab and
machine the patched surface.


----------



## JerryK

I forgot the image


----------



## JerryK

I attached this laser just because I had one


----------



## JerryK

The blank for the moebius


----------



## ch2co

Moebius would be proud.


----------



## ch2co

Whoops! Hit send too soon. 

Is this a functional beer bottle opener?


----------



## cs900

Bob La Londe said:


> Some not so quick... quick and easy Christmas presents.  Started out to be 8 of them.  I did two prototypes, then did a plan to make these 4 all very similar.  Destroyed two top pieces because I had the wrong speeds and feeds for stainless when cutting out the notch for the catch.  Didn't have enough time to make two more top pieces.  Still I have enough for the most important people.  They use either Parker refills or Fisher Space Pen refills.  I went with the Fisher Space Pen refills for the ones to be given out as gifts.
> 
> View attachment 250851


Those look great. Something I've been wanting to make for a while.

My christmas contribution....Custom made game dice and a lithophane ornament with a custom aluminum case.






As for the mobius, why not machine the first side, and then flip it over and cast it in wax. should be solid enough to hold it.


----------



## Boswell

cs900 said:


> Those look great. Something I've been wanting to make for a while.
> 
> My christmas contribution....Custom made game dice and a lithophane ornament with a custom aluminum case.



I really like the dice. Nice use for a Turners Cube


----------



## cs900

thanks, they turned out really well. My girlfriends sister and brother in law are big into D&D and they loved them so they should get some good use as well.


----------



## ch2co

You might need to try out making 8, 12, and 20 sided dice for the D&D crowd. Never seen this done as a Turners "cube" but it would be 
interesting if you could do it. I can't see how its would be done, but then I couldn't figure out how to make a 6 sided turners cube until 
somebody on HM showed one being made.  Those you made are *incredible *with the numbered faces and colorings.
Are they painted or anodized? If anodized, do you do your own?

Again, very cool.


----------



## cs900

ch2co said:


> You might need to try out making 8, 12, and 20 sided dice for the D&D crowd. Never seen this done as a Turners "cube" but it would be
> interesting if you could do it. I can't see how its would be done, but then I couldn't figure out how to make a 6 sided turners cube until
> somebody on HM showed one being made.  Those you made are *incredible *with the numbered faces and colorings.
> Are they painted or anodized? If anodized, do you do your own?
> 
> Again, very cool.


Well thanks! Yeah...oddly enough I hosted the picture on imgur and within minuets had messages asking if I made more than just the 6 sided dice. I would like to try something a bit more complicated. Might be a good project for next Christmas! Pretty sure even with some strategic hole drilling a 20 sided dice could look pretty neat.

They are anodized, and yes I do my own. It's pretty easy really. Hardest part is making sure everything is perfectly clean before they go in the acid bath otherwise you get discolorations on the surface. But anyone with some battery acid, distilled water, and a power supply (even a battery charger) can do it.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

Just some stuff.   Sitting here board out of my gourd at a mixer for the wife's work.  I'll ready did the escort her around the room and make small talk thing... an hour ago.  

I tried to pick only things done with CNC, and not to many molds.  I have a lot of other cool parts pictures on my phone, but they aren't CNC machined.  I think one might have slipped into the post.


----------



## ch2co

Bob
You make some incredible stuff there!
I don’t ever see me getting into CNC but when I see stuff like this I start to get itchy for control. 

PS that dog you made really looks like the real thing! I’d love to see the code for that one.


----------



## Robert LaLonde

Well yesterday... I hunted all over my shop for some PW-04 locking tab washers to lock the nut that holds the thrust bearings on the ballscrews for my bigger mill.  I finally found, not one, but three of them hiding in this piece of steel.  I just had to cut them out.  

http://tacklemaker.info/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;pic=51


----------



## Groundhog

Bob La Londe said:


> Well yesterday... I hunted all over my shop for some PW-04 locking tab washers to lock the nut that holds the thrust bearings on the ballscrews for my bigger mill.  I finally found, not one, but three of them hiding in this piece of steel.  I just had to cut them out.
> 
> http://tacklemaker.info/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;pic=51


Funny how little things like that can hide in a chunk of metal.
What substrate do you have the thin plate screwed (pop-rivited?) to?


----------



## Robert LaLonde

Groundhog said:


> Funny how little things like that can hide in a chunk of metal.
> What substrate do you have the thin plate screwed (pop-rivited?) to?



Its the back side of a piece of aluminum flat bar.  I say back side because the front side has a failed attempt at an injection mold partially machined into it.  I clamped the steel in place, drilled holes, tapped through, screwed it down, and then separated out the tab locking washers.  They are a funtional equivilent to a PW-04.  If anybody finds themselves needing to make some I posted the CB file on the CamBam forum.  I used a fiber wheel on a rotary hand piece to clean up the outer tabs, and a triangle file to clean up the inner tabs.


----------



## shooter123456

I made a couple timing pulleys for my scratch built CNC lathe.  Pretty easy to do and they work great.


----------



## stioc

My first CNC project after converting my RF30 to CNC (the build thread is in this section).




My fancy plywood sub-plate :lol:



That mark to the left is from the second broken bit



I'm using an old drill-bit as the stop since I didn't have a 3/8" rod handy.


----------



## Boswell

While not made out of metal, I did use my 3D printer to make all the mechanical parts to an old school style Annunciator for my home automation system. I did all of the CAD work in Autocad 2012 then used CURA as the CAM program and an Ultimaker 2+ to print out all the different parts. Here are a few pictures. You can also check out a little more about it on my HackaDay project page HERE including the Autocad file and STL files for all the 3D printed parts.


----------



## stioc

CNC'd this address plate out of 1/4" alum 6061 - thinking of scrotch-brite'ng it to get the brushed-alum look?






Here's a quick 20sec video of it in action:
https://streamable.com/bbab2

Now this will be fun cleaning up! :scared:


----------



## stioc

The finished address sign:






Also made a collet rack this past weekend, this was a test of doing multiple operations in one g-code file utilizing different tools (center drill, 1/4" end mill, 1/16" ball end mill for engraving) :


----------



## Groundhog

I like your address sign.
Mine is ceramic with the numbers made up of flowers - it came with the house. Not exactly my style.
So, I've decided to copy your design and make one for myself.


----------



## stioc

LOL, that's exactly how mine was too and came with the house as well- beige ceramic tile pieces, brown numbers and red flowers. By all means, copy away!


----------



## Suzuki4evr

jumps4 said:


> In 2006 I purchased my first lathe and mill from Harbor Freight with no idea how to use them
> since then I have built (converted to cnc ) all of my cnc equipment from scratch not kits and have a lot I'd like to show...
> I have photographs of my small cnc machines building parts for
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 96266
> View attachment 96267
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> my larger ones but here are a few examples of some nice parts I have made
> I don't wish to flood the thread but I have a lot more if there is interest.


Another guy making the rest of us look bad. Nice, it looks STUNNING Jumps4


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## Suzuki4evr

09kevin said:


> This is a 4th axis project I did for fun.
> 
> Stock held with 3 jaw chuck on the 4th axis
> 
> View attachment 98735
> 
> 
> Roughing 4" diameter
> 
> View attachment 98736
> 
> 
> Machining the tapered pockets
> 
> View attachment 98737
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> 
> Finished project
> 
> View attachment 98739
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> View attachment 98738
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> 
> Kevin


Why?........Just be you can. Looks AWESOME.


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## Suzuki4evr

Suzuki4evr said:


> Why?........Just be you can. Looks AWESOME.


I ment just BECAUSE  you can. Sorry for the typo


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## MontanaAardvark

stioc said:


> Also made a collet rack this past weekend, this was a test of doing multiple operations in one g-code file utilizing different tools (center drill, 1/4" end mill, 1/16" ball end mill for engraving) :



Did you cut the holes for the collets with the 1/4" end mill cutting circular interpolation or use big cutter, like a boring head or something?

(good to see this thread active again)


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## stioc

@Bob - yes 1/4" end mill that plunged where I pre-drilled the holes, then did a contour to make the round holes. I have a detailed post on this project in my RF30 build thread in this section.


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## stioc

Fixture plate:





Engraving - unfortunately the powder coat chipped along the engraving path giving it a broken/jagged look AKA needs more work.


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## MontanaAardvark

I'm not completely Done done with it, but the first part for my Duclos flame eater engine is off the mill and into "finish work".  There are some cosmetic defects that need a little help with files or sanding drums or something.


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## stioc

4 bolt compound slide mount for my 9x20 lathe. More info and pics in my RF30 CNC conversion thread:

















[/url]

Comparison old vs. new:


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## MontanaAardvark

Soft jaws for my cheapo mill vise.  Thinner so that I can hold a larger piece, and taller so that I can grab the cylinder for the engine I'm working on.




Simple stuff, but handy.


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## stioc

^ I like them! Do you have a thread on the engine you're working on?


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## MontanaAardvark

stioc said:


> ^ I like them! Do you have a thread on the engine you're working on?



No, but I should.  I'm pretty early in the process of building a flame eater from the Shop Wisdom of Philip Duclos.  I'm still on the second part (the cylinder).  

To be honest, it's a reach for me.  Lots to learn.


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## shooter123456

I made a pneumatic draw bar for my mill and a set of soft jaws for my lathe.


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## MontanaAardvark

Cool!  Is that a BF-20, like the Grizzly G0704?


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## shooter123456

MontanaAardvark said:


> Cool!  Is that a BF-20, like the Grizzly G0704?



Yes, very similar.  It has a few differences that make me hesitate to call it the same machine but roughly the same size, weight, and travels and a lot of very similar features.  

Might help to add that it is a PM-25.


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## JimDawson

Here is a short video of my son finishing a few parts on the Haas.  He has been pushing the envelope in high speed machining.  These parts were roughed out in about 5 minutes, 6061 T6 aluminum, full 1/2 inch dept of cut, 6000 RPM, 3/8 aluminum roughing end mill, about 125 IPM.  He ran 2 pallets of these and cut one with a standard off-the-shelf aluminum rougher, and the other with a experimental Onsrud rougher.  The standard rougher won that contest.  The Onsrud rougher loaded up and used twice the HP of the standard rougher.  So back to the drawing board on that one, those will be going back to Onsrud to see what their lab has to say.

The finishing is being done with a 9 flute (yes, nine flute), 3/8 endmill, 6000 RPM, 217 IPM, 0.010 cut width, 1/2 DOC.  These endmills were custom designed and by built Onsrud for this application.  I think there are only three of them in existence. The surface finish at that speed was marginal, at 120 IPM the finish was good, I think we need more spindle speed. My son is working with a local tooling rep to experiment with extreme high speed machining.


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## Boswell

JimDawson said:


> Here is a short video of my son finishing a few parts on the Haas.



It looks like the rapid moves (G0) might be slower than the cutting moves (G1)


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## shooter123456

I made a tool for changing something or other on an old car a friend is working on.  No one makes tools for it anymore and they had to draw up what they needed based on measurements on the car.  I don't really know what it does, but he said it works.  It is made out of 6061 aluminum, the turning was done on a lathe and then the rest was milled on my PM25. The tab on the side doesn't need to hold much weight, so a small notch was cut and the tab was epoxied on.


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## MontanaAardvark

Is the general term for that a castle nut wrench?


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## shooter123456

MontanaAardvark said:


> Is the general term for that a castle nut wrench?


That's what I thought, but I was told it isn't a wrench.  It is more like a jig or a fixture to hold the whole assembly together to get it into and out of the car. I think the teeth are just for aligning everything.  I really couldn't say for sure though...


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## MontanaAardvark

shooter123456 said:


> That's what I thought, but I was told it isn't a wrench.  It is more like a jig or a fixture to hold the whole assembly together to get it into and out of the car. I think the teeth are just for aligning everything.  I really couldn't say for sure though...



Thanks.  It's pretty nice looking and a cool tool.   I'm just trying to learn everything I can.


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## MontanaAardvark

Completed the cylinder for my Duclos Flame Eater Engine.  Combination of turning on the (non-CNC) big lathe, and milling on my CNC Griz G0704




I milled it with the pedestal in place (it's the first part you make), as a way to automagically align that hole in the pedestal and the flat I made on the cylinder.  




A little better look at it, the overall size and appearance.


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## JimDawson

My son made chips yesterday. 

Needed to slab 1/4 inch off of some 1.5x1.5 6061 bar stock, so he decided to see what the end mill below would do.  It's a 1.25 or a 1.5 diameter, I forget which.  100 in/min,  6000 rpm,  0.200 depth of cut, and 0.500 step over, using a trochoidal milling pattern.  The spindle load meter never went over 30%




We didn't get a video of the process, but here is a video that explains trochoidal milling if you're not familiar with it.


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## cs900

Very cool. If he gets brave he can push it a heck of a lot faster than that. At those DOC and WOC you could try running at 5500 RPM and 259in/min (.009 ipt). Any VCM should have the power to push thru that assuming it's clamped well


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## shooter123456

I made a motor mount for a 2 HP servo motor for my spindle, a Nema 34 stepper mount, a set of mitee bites talon soft jaws and clamps and stepper encoder mounts.


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## spumco

shooter123456 said:


> I made a motor mount for a 2 HP servo motor for my spindle, a Nema 34 stepper mount, a set of mitee bites talon soft jaws and clamps and stepper encoder mounts.


Not to hijack this picture thread, but I'm in the planning stages of switching to an AC servo for a spindle motor.  Currently have a 2ph induction that is too big to fit a standard air cylinder on the head.  PM please if you have a few minutes to discuss.

Thanks,
Ralph


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## r3292c

Hello everyone! My name is Ivan. I'm new to this forum, but metalworking is my hobby for the last 12 years.
I've built CNC Lathe recently and make these metal puzzles that every chipmaker knows.
2.5" - 63mm ball, seven levels totally


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## r3292c




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## Boswell

Hello Ivan.  Welcome to the forum.  nice work on the Turners Cube variation.  I am sure we would all like to see pictures of the Lathe you used.  Looking forward to your contributions to our community.


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## r3292c

Thanks, Boswell. I'm going to start a thread about my lathe. Here is a trailer below


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## r3292c

More CNC-made toys

1-1/4" ball, four levels


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## r3292c

2" ball, six levels


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## r3292c

And the cubes, of cause. 2" and 1'" ones


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## JimDawson

Amazing work ! 

Welcome aboard !


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## shooter123456

I have made a few things.  An AR15 lower, some talon grips and jaws for the vise, a better conversion kit for the machine, and a 4th axis/lathe attachment for the machine.

Here is the lower.  


























Here are the jaws and talon grips.  I love these, but the talon inserts need to be hardened.  They haven't stood up to repeated use without hardening.










This is the conversion kit.















Here is the 4th axis.


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## MontanaAardvark

shooter123456 said:


> I have made a few things. An AR15 lower, some talon grips and jaws for the vise, a better conversion kit for the machine, and a 4th axis/lathe attachment for the machine.



Cool!  An AR lower from billet has been on my "wanna do" list for a while.  There are still things I need to learn.  

I bought a rotary table and then added a stepper motor.  Didn't think to make the RT from scratch.  

Congrats.  Very impressive - the finish you're getting on the aluminum looks great, too.


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## r3292c

Nut in a nut, or one more turner's puzzle. Made mostly on CNC lathe.


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## cs900

Finished a few knives for christmas. All parts made right here in my home shop:










They even have a hardened lock insert





All parts were anodized in the home shop as well


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## JimDawson

Very nice !


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## Boswell

the knives are awesome. Great Work.


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## cs900

thanks guys. they are a lot of fun to make and were very well received. I've never seen my dad tear into a present like a 5 year old before, but as soon as he knew what it was there was wrapping everywhere!


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## JimDawson

My first real mill/turn project.  These are part of a product we make.  We had been doing the round part on the CNC lathe, and then doing a second op on the mill to do the slot & chamfer.  I finally got the live tooling all set up and working on the lathe.  So now can do the whole thing on the lathe.  That old Hardinge Conquest 42 is worth every penny we have into it.

This is fresh off the lathe, from here it will go into vibratory deburr and be done.  Material is 304 SS.  I'll run about 300 of these in the morning.


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## cs900

looks neat. Do you do the chamfers on the slot opening with live indexing of the spindle?


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## JimDawson

cs900 said:


> looks neat. Do you do the chamfers on the slot opening with live indexing of the spindle?



Thank you.  No, I wish I could do that, but that is about my next project.  I am using setting the spindle brake and using a 82° countersink and just just moving it from the center out in a few passes to create the chamfer.


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## burtonbr

Been goofing around between paying jobs with some 1911 grips, just for fun and to test some different textures and patterns. Need to tweek the code a bit and get the machining time down.


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## JimDawson

Here is a bracket we are running for one of our products.  We wind up milling away about 90% of the starting material.  It's actually cheaper and much faster to do that than to make the parts in 2 pieces, less handling and fewer operations.  

First cut blanks to length






We run them on this pallet.  We have a 1 inch thick tooling plate bolted to the table, then have interchangeable pallets that bolt to it.



Roughing them out.  Rough milling 6061 aluminum on the Haas TM 2p 1.5 inch insert cutter, 5000 RPM, 1 inch step over, 0.25 DOC, 70 IPM 






And ready for finishing



And almost finished.  Need a hole drilled & tapped in a second operation.  The roundover is interpolated with a ball end mill.  We get 1 pair per blank.


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## r3292c

3" wooden cubes. Black walnut, cherry and maple wood. Made on CNC lathe with a milling spindle.


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## shooter123456

Tool changer for my PM-25.  It has about 35 parts, all made using the PM-25.


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## MontanaAardvark

Sweet!   10 places?  

You ought to consider making a video of it in action.  A couple of changes is plenty.  It looks like instead of being at the end of the table and permanently located there, it's attached to the mill's headstock.  That would mean instead of slewing the table over to grab the tool, the tool changer slews over to the spindle for the change.  Probably faster.

Interesting!


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## spumco

Fantastic.  Im in the early stages of brainstorming an ATC myself.  Any details & photos you'd care to share would be very welcome - and probably not just by me.


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## shooter123456

MontanaAardvark said:


> Sweet!   10 places?
> 
> You ought to consider making a video of it in action.  A couple of changes is plenty.  It looks like instead of being at the end of the table and permanently located there, it's attached to the mill's headstock.  That would mean instead of slewing the table over to grab the tool, the tool changer slews over to the spindle for the change.  Probably faster.
> 
> Interesting!


Yes, 10 tool slots.  It is an umbrella style changer which isn't a new design (as much as I wish I could take credit for it).  It is actually mounted to the column rather than the head, so it is up there at a fixed height.  I imagine it is faster than a table style changer, simply because it doesn't require the table movement or the machine to retract fully, come all the way back down, retract fully again, then start cutting.

Here is a video of it just testing the motion of the changer.  It uses an air cylinder to position it under the spindle and a stepper motor to rotate to the correct tool.  I am still working on the programming.  The hangup at the moment is getting LinuxCNC to communicate with the arduino I am using to control the changer.








spumco said:


> Fantastic. Im in the early stages of brainstorming an ATC myself. Any details & photos you'd care to share would be very welcome - and probably not just by me.



I have a good deal of documentation and photos in my PM-25 thread here, as well as the video posted above.  https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/new-pm-25mv-mill.65939/


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## shooter123456

I made a little tube holder for keeping things compact and organized at work.  There is a little error where for some reason that is not known to me, the machine Y zero got bumped by about .5".  It is also the first time I tried engraving and I think it went pretty well.  I think the surface finish could be better, but overall I am happy with it.












This is a little mount for an air solenoid for the air blast chip clearing.  I use air blast when I am cutting deep holes and the mist won't clear them well enough.  It mounts to the hole where the quill handle used to be.


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## r3292c

A star in 2" wooden ball. Made of a solid piece of wood. 








Link to a ball turning attachment that allows to make a complete ball
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...n-ideal-ball-with-end-mill.78109/#post-662824


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## burtonbr

I been working through versions of a table mounted ATC, this is the 2nd version, I think it may become useful as it stores out of the way and doesn't take up work area.


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## shooter123456

I made some doors for a new enclosure for my machine.  Just aluminum bars for the frame, some aluminum tube for handles and some connectors to the hold the handles to the door.











I also made some sheet metal way covers.  I have not had a chance to mount them and test them yet, but I am hopeful that they will work. 










New Y axis motor mount that will let me put a sheet metal cover over the motor and protect the coupler and bearings from chips and coolant.















Also been making some conversion kits to help pay for more machining stuff.


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## MontanaAardvark

Very nice looking results, there, shooter123456!  

I told myself when I was CNC converting my G0704 that it didn't have to be permanent, but if it got me running CNC files I could make multiples of any design approach I came up with.  Now that I've had to work on my X and Y axes upside down and backwards in a mirror a few times, I've been thinking of other approaches.


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## r3292c

Making "Star-In a Ball-In a Cube"





Finished


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## r3292c

Aluminum "Star in a Ball" and "Star in a Ring"


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## hman

Ivan (r3292c) is a member of the Valley Metal club here in Phoenix.  He attended our meeting this Saturday morning and showed us several of the tools he's made for his CNC lathe.  He also brought along a goodly number of his creations, in aluminum, brass, wood etc..  ABSOLUTELY MAGNIFICENT!  They're even more impressive "up close and personal" than they are in a Youtube or on eBay.  The quality, finish, and delicacy are superb.

Don't know if he'd planned on selling a lot of his products, but several of the guys at the meeting were just about falling over each other to look at and buy them.  If anybody here is on the fence about buying something of his, I'd suggest going for it.  He is one very creative guy!


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## tkalxx

Wanted to dump a few pictures of things made on my CNC converted PM25. Here are some photos of parts I've made in the last few months!










































- Adam.


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## Boswell

Very nice work


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## Suzuki4evr

tkalxx said:


> Wanted to dump a few pictures of things made on my CNC converted PM25. Here are some photos of parts I've made in the last few months!
> 
> 
> View attachment 394083
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> - Adam.


If you have it......flaunt it. And cleary you have it. It's nice if you have the right tools for the job. Excellent work.


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## tkalxx

Suzuki4evr said:


> If you have it......flaunt it. And cleary you have it. It's nice if you have the right tools for the job. Excellent work.


Thank you! It's amazing the possibilities that open up once you have access to a CNC.


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## Suzuki4evr

tkalxx said:


> Thank you! It's amazing the possibilities that open up once you have access to a CNC.


Well I wouldn't give the machine ALL the credit,surely you had something to do with it. If you can't blame the machine if something gets stuffed up,then you can't give IT credit for getting it right...........right?


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## Cadillac STS

Here is something I am working on right now.  CNC only used for one operation but it would not be as nice done manually.

The project is making a set of wood lathe carbide insert holders.  Stainless Steel.  The CNC part is the bottom flat.  It worked very well.

Not a complex thing to post but I was pleased with it and it is interesting.

They are longer shank because those are going to go through a “Steady Pro” tool rest before working the piece.  Making 10 for myself and 10 for a friend.


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## Cadillac STS

Next op setup.  Using the CNC mill but manually with the pendant

Making the flat where the carbide insert goes

Laser edge finder to set center

Spot drill

Drill

Countersink hole

Tap

All set in my Bridgeport quick change tool holders to easily go through them and not lose position


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