Best / proper machining method to make this part

Thanks for your patience guys; I am feeling much better now.
To try and answer some of the questions here we go.

I am using 6061 aluminum.

I tried WD40, cutting oil, cutting oil for aluminum and a mix of thin motor oilwith marvel mystery oil. Honestly I found my mix to work best for thisparticular application.

I have tried drilling out material than milling but I still get that bit wobblethat seems to leave marks in the sides. Milling was easier but still hadissues.

The shopvac is a good idea but in my setup right now the shopvac is remotelylocated and is controlled by an x-10 wireless control that seems to be confusedwhen mill is running. The crazy thing won't turn on or off when you want it too;have to work on that issue.

I have a power feed on the x axis that is speed adjustable and I have beenusing that to keep a slow steady rate so I am not breaking bits. Being I am newto this I have been learning lots of lessons on this $$$$.

I have the piece setup on the lathe chuck mounted in the rotary table. I haveDROs that I do follow and have stops on the x axis and the z axis. I lock therotary table every time I move it to next location.

The mill is running top speed which is around 2500rpm. It is the Little MachineShop 3960 Mini-mill.

I may have missed answering all questions asked me, sorry about that. Iappreciate all your help and take all comments seriously. As I said I am new toall this and this site is the best tool I have going.

Everyone have a great day and thanks again!
Ed
 
eac67gt said:


The shopvac is a good idea but in my setup right now the shopvac is remotelylocated and is controlled by an x-10 wireless control that seems to be confusedwhen mill is running. The crazy thing won't turn on or off when you want it too;have to work on that issue.

Ed
Click to expand...
I have quite a bit of experience using x10 stuff. Line noise is the enemy of these things which can be a real problem in a shop. The best thing to try is to try and get the transmitter and the reciever as close to each other "electrically" as possible. If you can get them both on the same circuit, that would be even better. But distance can spoil the whole setup if there's line noise, even on the same circuit.
 
Thanks for the advice.

The x-10 control I am using is a low voltage switch mounted at the workbench that runs to a universal input x-10 module. The applicance x-10 module the shopvac is on is on the same circuit and actually within a couple of feet of each other. The idea was first I had the x-10 stuff lying around so I might as well put it to use. Then the idea was to put a small switch under the bench to switch the input to control it all so I didn't have to run around and flip the vac on. In the past typical AC noise has caused me issues but this noise is a little different even though it is noise. I put the scope on the line and you can see noise around the 120khz that the x-10 controls generate that appears to be coming from the controller on the minimill. My simple solution was not to run both at the same time which typically I don't. It was those times I did try to switch the vac on when the mill was running and nothing would happen and as soon as the mill is turned off and I try the vac it works. No other machines on that line interfere with the x-10. It is just those little spikes I see at around 120khz that seem to be interfereing with the 120khz signal that is interlaced over the AC line. My long term solution is to either put a switched outlet in for the vac or relay it so I can stick to the small switch I am using now.

Thanks again.

Have a great day.

Ed
 
So, aside from the remote control, are you able to make those parts OK now?



eac67gt said:
Thanks for your patience guys; I am feeling much better now.
To try and answer some of the questions here we go.

I am using 6061 aluminum.

I tried WD40, cutting oil, cutting oil for aluminum and a mix of thin motor oilwith marvel mystery oil. Honestly I found my mix to work best for thisparticular application.

I have tried drilling out material than milling but I still get that bit wobblethat seems to leave marks in the sides. Milling was easier but still hadissues.

The shopvac is a good idea but in my setup right now the shopvac is remotelylocated and is controlled by an x-10 wireless control that seems to be confusedwhen mill is running. The crazy thing won't turn on or off when you want it too;have to work on that issue.

I have a power feed on the x axis that is speed adjustable and I have beenusing that to keep a slow steady rate so I am not breaking bits. Being I am newto this I have been learning lots of lessons on this $$$$.

I have the piece setup on the lathe chuck mounted in the rotary table. I haveDROs that I do follow and have stops on the x axis and the z axis. I lock therotary table every time I move it to next location.

The mill is running top speed which is around 2500rpm. It is the Little MachineShop 3960 Mini-mill.

I may have missed answering all questions asked me, sorry about that. Iappreciate all your help and take all comments seriously. As I said I am new toall this and this site is the best tool I have going.

Everyone have a great day and thanks again!
Ed
Click to expand...
 
OK good. BTW: If you're still getting those milling marks in the sides of the slot, you can do it in three steps to mitigate that. Take a bit 1/2 the diameter of the desired slot and make 3 passes. First one goes right up the center and the other two clean-off the sides. Don't do any hill climbing cuts -those are always ugly.


eac67gt said:
yes sir
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Ray!
Right now my smallest mill is 1/8" so I will have to get one a little smaller to try your idea being my finished slots are 1/8".
One thing we did is on the piece that the slots go completely to the outside we turned it horizontal ont eh rotary table and using a 1/8" ball end mill we cut the slots. The process seems to be working pretty good.
I added microswitches to my stops and a couple of relays and the table now moves back and forth on it own without having to switch direction.
I had made a drive for the table x axis out of a old black and decker 18v drill and added a pulse wave modulation speed control so with this and the direction switching I just added to the stops the process runs nice and smooth and helped with finish and I am not breaking end mills.
The mill is my sons and it is a Little Machine Shop Minimill. Works pretty good for the parts we make.
Thanks again for your help!
Have a great day!
Ed
 
2500 RPM on a 1/8 2 flute end mill is only 82 SFM with MFG recomended of 600 SFM so any thing you can do to increase your speed the better off you are. I went to LMS belt drive for my mini mill and can get 4500 RPM out of it now.
Some one mentioned the Fog Buster mist system. I have on and when it is set correctly you get no mess and no mist fog in the air. You can bring the pressure up so it clears chips out of a slot.

I use Gwizard for figuring feeds and speed plus a ton of other stuff for machinists. http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCGWizard.html

Dave
 
Thanks Dave.
I want to speed the mill up but money is tight right now. I saw the kit on littlemachineshop.com to change the mill over. We have the little machine shop minimill and it tops out right now at 2500rpm. I try to feed slower to avoid issues due to lack of spindle speed but it doesn't always come out pretty. :banghead:
I made up yesterday a simple drip oil setup to see if it would help with maching a bunch of the same parts. It made it easier thant I didn't have to tend to oiling. It helped but made a little mess. I am seriously going to have to consider the mist idea and speed up when other things get paid for but on the other hand I can't keep breaking bits.
Have a great day!
Ed
 
I just wanted to update everyone on where I am with this process.
We have somewhat given up on the original pieces that were closed on sides that we were milling vertically.
View attachment 48462


This style we are doing now seems better and more desirable.
I went to a 1/8" ball mill and switched the piece to horizontal on the rotary table.
We are getting much better results and much less finishing in the slots.
Attached below is a little video of it running. Might be a little boring but I thought I would add it.
I had made a power drive from a cordless drill sometime ago but now I have microswitches added to my stop and it reverses direction for me.
Isn't no CNC but it works for now. :))


Have a great day!

Ed
View attachment 48457View attachment 48458View attachment 48459View attachment 48460
 
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