Good morning, All
Brief background: I have just started machining this year, having bought a PM-30 back in the spring. I have encountered a couple of issues that I am sure are simple matters to those of you who have years of metal shavings behind them. Nonetheless, they are currently important items to me and I would very much appreciate any help/guidance.
I would preface the questions by first saying that I work full-time and have children so my "shop time" usually occurs on weekends, with very little activity during the week. Projects that are in-process may sit for a week at a time.
1. With fairly long projects, involving several weeks of machining, what do you do with alloy steel to keep corrosion under control/ I have a project that has been underway for about a month and, even though I've been wiping the metal down with oil when I'm not there, it seems like each time I go back, the metal is darker and has more visible corrosion.
2. I have apparently made a mistake, and am now looking for a solution correcting it. When I bought my mill, I bought a large inventory of tooling from the family of a retired machinist. This included a couple of sets of parallels. I used one set of parallels on a small part project that took just over a week to finish. When I took the part out, apparently there was some level of surface rust on the parallel which it seems has transferred to the face of my mill vice jaws. This is an area that is about an 1/8" tall and maybe 2" wide. I worked the area with 0000 steel wool and oil but the discoloration is still there. I was concerned about trying a more aggressive removal, given the precision issue. I cant feel any surface damage but my B&S dial indicator shows about 1 or 2 0.0005" on the needle as it passes over it dialing in the vice. What should I do with this?
Thank you in advance for your time.
Michael
Brief background: I have just started machining this year, having bought a PM-30 back in the spring. I have encountered a couple of issues that I am sure are simple matters to those of you who have years of metal shavings behind them. Nonetheless, they are currently important items to me and I would very much appreciate any help/guidance.
I would preface the questions by first saying that I work full-time and have children so my "shop time" usually occurs on weekends, with very little activity during the week. Projects that are in-process may sit for a week at a time.
1. With fairly long projects, involving several weeks of machining, what do you do with alloy steel to keep corrosion under control/ I have a project that has been underway for about a month and, even though I've been wiping the metal down with oil when I'm not there, it seems like each time I go back, the metal is darker and has more visible corrosion.
2. I have apparently made a mistake, and am now looking for a solution correcting it. When I bought my mill, I bought a large inventory of tooling from the family of a retired machinist. This included a couple of sets of parallels. I used one set of parallels on a small part project that took just over a week to finish. When I took the part out, apparently there was some level of surface rust on the parallel which it seems has transferred to the face of my mill vice jaws. This is an area that is about an 1/8" tall and maybe 2" wide. I worked the area with 0000 steel wool and oil but the discoloration is still there. I was concerned about trying a more aggressive removal, given the precision issue. I cant feel any surface damage but my B&S dial indicator shows about 1 or 2 0.0005" on the needle as it passes over it dialing in the vice. What should I do with this?
Thank you in advance for your time.
Michael
