Our daughter came home for Christmas so I thought I will a make a couple of items for her
This is child's play for you guys, but for a retired trigger monkey just learning how to use the machines it is satisfying. I've been doing a lot of turning, facing, drilling, and boring exercises on different materials as part of my lathe self training, and lately I started the familiarization exercises on the mill. The exercises I did previously were not tied to any specific end product, just making chips, until this time.
The fridge magnets were good training for drilling, and boring to specific dimension for the magnets to fit. I was so elated how the first one came out that when I slid the magnet in straight down, it entered the bored hole very slowly, like hydraulic effect. The problem was when I put epoxy at the bottom and had a little too much that I could not displace any of it through the wall of the hole. Had to remove some so the magnet can be flush with the bottom of the holder. I allowed 0.010 clearance for the JB Weld, but I misjudged the volume the JB occupied and put in there too much.
The hammers were another good training exercise for me. Using a 1/2 inch Brass bar stock, the reverse spindle rotation parting tool was used. On the mill I was able to use the edge finder to find the TDC of the hammer heads, then drilled and tapped the mounting hole 1/4x28, I was able to employ the parallels when clamping the hammer head. For the handle, using a live center, I turned down a section of a 3/8 SS rod and threaded one end and knurled the other. Well, scratched, more than knurl, my first attempt.
Using the 1/2 inch edge finder, it took a few attempts before I could repeatedly get it right. To get consistent results I resorted to using a LED flashlight mounted on my tripod shining on the edge finder at an angle so I can see the shadow on the back side of the vise. It was easier for me to see a steady shadow that watching the shiny wiggler gets steady. May not be the proper way use the edge finders, but got the job done, hope you guys can give me some tips on how to use these things effectively. Maybe I need to get one those LED edge indicators.
My biggest take away, for my first official projects is that I was able to apply the different aspects of machining in these little widgets and have finished products I can touch and feel.
Maybe I should have put this in the beginners section for they may not be viewed as projects worthy on this thread.