Mike's P.M. Research No. 6 Steam Engine

[macardoso]

Ouch.... is it bad I predicted that ending? I would suggest putting it on a pallet of some sort.

Yeah, already headed down that path for the second one. Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way.

As a bonus, strapped down to a pallet will make the whole setup more rigid and less likely to chatter during boring.

 

[Janderso]

I still need to repeat the drilled holes, slitting, and boring, but this time I will be using a different setup, hopefully with better results.

Looks great!!
Well done.

 

[tq60]

You may also have stresses complicating things.

Well before finish stop, measure then release pressure and see if it moves.

May need to bang on it to stress relieve it.

Getting it back into vise a challenge but a coax indicator could help.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[macardoso]

Opted to do a bit of CAD/CAM for the Eccentric Fixture. Not that is absolutely necessary, but it has been a good while since I've opened the program and I wanted the practice.

First I modeled the critical features for boring.



Next I modeled the piece of aluminum scrap I'm working with, including the randomly placed hole in it.



Additional features were added to help place the hold down fasteners



Locations for clamping washers are sketched in.


Clamping Bolt locations are drilled and Tapped. The central bore is expanded.


Gcode is written


Finally, the fixture was machined. and hand tapped








Next step is to load the part onto the pallet and bore the hole.

 

[Janderso]

Opted to do a bit of CAD/CAM for the Eccentric Fixture. Not that is absolutely necessary, but it has been a good while since I've opened the program and I wanted the practice.

First I modeled the critical features for boring.

View attachment 363032

Next I modeled the piece of aluminum scrap I'm working with, including the randomly placed hole in it.

View attachment 363033

Additional features were added to help place the hold down fasteners

View attachment 363034

Locations for clamping washers are sketched in.
View attachment 363035

Clamping Bolt locations are drilled and Tapped. The central bore is expanded.
View attachment 363036

Gcode is written
View attachment 363044

Finally, the fixture was machined. and hand tapped


View attachment 363065

View attachment 363066

View attachment 363068

Next step is to load the part onto the pallet and bore the hole.

Using a CNC mill is cheating. I'm just wishing I was smart enough to use Fusion 360 and applying the draft to the mill.
Nice work, even if you cheated

 

[macardoso]

Using a CNC mill is cheating. I'm just wishing I was smart enough to use Fusion 360 and applying the draft to the mill.
Nice work, even if you cheated

100% not necessary for the engine. The CAD/CAM/CNC workflow is complicated and it was a good opportunity to stretch those muscles.

Automating the boring process is SOOOOO nice lol. I can start it and read a book for a minute at a time as it is cutting.

 

[macardoso]

Using a CNC mill is cheating. I'm just wishing I was smart enough to use Fusion 360 and applying the draft to the mill.
Nice work, even if you cheated

Also, the whole CNC thing isn't too hard to jump into. You can get cutting pretty quick, but it takes a while to start to feel like you know what you are doing. I've got 8 years in, know how to make complicated parts (moderately quickly), but I still hand code lots of stuff that more experienced guys would bang out with canned cycles, subroutines, offsets, scaling, etc.

 

[Janderso]

more experienced guys would bang out with canned cycles, subroutines, offsets, scaling, etc.

English please, this is a family forum.

 

[hman]

I still hand code most of what I do on my EDBD CNC mill. Tried using the CAM portion of Fusion 360, also tried CamBam. Yes, they work ... but the tool paths and sequences of operation they choose to do look frustratingly inefficient. WAY too much time wasted cutting air! So far I haven't had to use very much of the "canned cycles, subroutines, offsets, scaling, etc.," though I'm trying to learn. And if nothing else, it's a lot of fun to stretch the muscles (between my ears)!

 

[Boswell]

WAY too much time wasted cutting air!

When I first got my CNC Mill working, I used CamBam and was also frustrated by the inefficient tool paths. For one-off parts, I did not think it mattered much, but when it did matter, like for higher quantitates, I used CamBam to generate the basic code and then I modified it by hand to reduce the cycle time. This seemed hybrid technique worked well for me. However, I no longer use CamBam and have moved on to BobCad and have not felt the need to hand modify any code.