Setup for cutting two 6 foot x 1/4 inch key ways

cathead

cathead

CATWERKS LTD
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Hello all,

A project I am considering involves cutting two six foot key ways in a 6 foot piece of one inch cold roll rod. The key ways are 180 degrees apart if that matters.
This will be done on my vertical mill with an end mill OR by using a horizontal mill attachment on the same mill. It is unclear which method would be
better. I have done this in the past using an end mill and it can be done but quite time consuming. I can deal with the repeated set up part but wondering
if the horizontal mill attachment is up to the job or if it would be too much for it. I have the unit that uses an arbor and mounts to the ram ways on the mill.
The key way cutter I have for the horizontal attachment is about 4 inches in diameter by 1/4 inch. I tried using it once in the past and it just seemed to
cut too hard. The cutter appears sharp but not cutting well used with the horizontal attachment. I'm not sure if the problem might be the cutter or if
the horizontal attachment lacks the rigidity for the job. I would like to try the horizontal milling method but don't want to set it all up twice and end up
using the mill vertical with a 1/4 inch end mill. The mill I will use for this job is a standard 9x42 knee mill. Maybe someone here has experience using
the horizontal attachment of this type. The rod will be affixed directly to the mill table with clamps.

Here are my questions:

1. Would the horizontal attachment be up to a job like this? ( using angle attachment, arbor and ram support)
2. If I try the horizontal method, what depth of cut would be reasonable for each pass?


Thanks everyone.
 
Last edited:
Simple setup are the best.
Locate the 1" diameter in the key-way of the mill, no indicating.
1/4 inch wide X 1" diameter key seat cutter.
Cut key way to depth, keep lubricated and clear of chips!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mill both sides of shaft for the length of the mill travel.
Move shaft for second cut and use the key seat cutter to set alignment to first cut.
Cut move cut move cut
 
I'm replacing the feed control rod on the Monarch as the old one was pretty well worn. I didn't have a key seat cutter so
used an end mill instead. The rod had to be rotated 180 degrees to cut both sides so opted to use a level mounted to a
one inch 5c collet holding the rod. It was somewhat time consuming but relatively easy to accomplish. It took
3 set ups on each side. Three clamps were used, basically it was a job to monitor the progress and move the clamps
and hold the vacuun cleaner wand as the Servo ran the X axis feed. The next phase is to remove the old feed rod and
finish up the machining of the control rod in the lathe. That will work fine as the lathe will still run if I remove the old rod
for measuring purposes. It needs some grooves for some gear teeth to fit in and whatever other features might be on the
end of that shaft. ( I havn't seen that part yet.:rolleyes:)


P1020240.JPG
This is the end of the shaft(yellow cold roll material) with the square collet block attached for orientation.





P1020241.JPG
And just a shot of the end mill working its way through the work. It was early
morning so had to have my coffee as I watched the work progress.




The foreman sleeps in on Sundays so had the shop all to myself.:encourage:
 
One may purchase 1" round shafting with a full length 1/4" keyseat in 1045 steel for $100.00, buy one and key the other side. This would be far more economical then doing it from bar stock using a machine not particularly suited for such work, time is money.
I only use McM as an example as they have published pricing, you will likely find it for half as much elsewhere.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#keyed-shafts/=1cbrfbg
 
P. Waller said:
One may purchase 1" round shafting with a full length 1/4" keyseat in 1045 steel for $100.00, buy one and key the other side. This would be far more economical then doing it from bar stock using a machine not particularly suited for such work, time is money.
I only use McM as an example as they have published pricing, you will likely find it for half as much elsewhere.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#keyed-shafts/=1cbrfbg
Click to expand...


Time is money to Ben Franklin but not to a hobby machinist. I don't machine for a living. A piece of keyed stock would be useless to me
as part of the feed rod control shaft is not keyed and has other machined features. To take this a step further, one could purchase a
ready made control rod from Monarch directly. They probably don't have one in stock so there would be lead time as they would likely
have to drag out their blueprints and make one from a piece of round stock and then ship it. My total expense to make this part will be
25 dollars, I can only imagine what the part would cost from Monarch but likely it would be over 1000 dollars. I expect I will have four
hours total in this project. Hmmmmm...... that would be almost 250 dollars per hour.......,Not bad for a hobby machinist. Not only that,
I get the satisfaction of having made the part on my own and learned something in the process. :encourage:
 
Greetings, a horizontal makes the most sense, but if rigidity is an issue just go with what you know.
As far as cost goes, i make things because i can, not because i have too.
 
The feed control rod now is installed in the Monarch and working nicely. I had to rework the inside keys
as they had a lot of wear too. Some previous owner had welded in what I would call hacked in keys to
take out the slop so had to rework that so that clearances would be less. A little test run went fine so
happy with the results.



P1020243.JPG
That's the old feed rod sitting on top and the new rod installed.





P1020244.JPG
This photo shows the end of the old feed rod with the rack gear teeth. Also there is a hole through the
rod about 3 inches from the left end that had to be positioned accurately or the feed handle would
end up in the wrong position.
 
Nicely done, i think you get a big horizontal mill to go with that big beautiful Monarch.
 
I'm thinking that's a job most easilly accomplished on a horizontal mill, but as said can certainly be done with and end mill. Would be nice to figure what's up with your horizontal attachment though. Mike
 
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