SUCCESS! Milling Machine w/ CNC and 1045 Steel saga conquered!

[countryguy]

And first off, a HUGE thank you to everyone here! Could not have done it w/o all of ya!

The final Mill repair was completed really early before work. And of course I promptly took the afternoon off to get home and do some CNC cutting on the new Mill!!!

Here are a 2 videos on the box cutting the axe face in two different methods. Both are the "merge" feature. Video 1 is w/ a bi-directional cut (climb /conv) on run 3 of the gcode 3 module run. I want climb only for this feature but they do not offer it yet.

And video 2 is another DolphinCAM merge (run 2 of 3 on the gcode run) to use constant Z axis milling in 33 passes across the cheek.

Overall, finally! Took a lot of hard work to get here and I'm really pleased w/ the performance and operation. In the end I had several issues in the Mill z Axis which caused more problems than I care to comment upon here! thanks to Ray and Jim on that end!

The CNC alingnment and calibration worked great. .5 to 2 or 3 Thou off from Mach 3 to Jenix DRO when a module would complete and the mill returned home. IT was as tight as I've ever seen it anyway. General accuracy Nook single ball screws on this machine. I'm a verrrry happy camper tonight.
enjoy the coming weekend everyone.

Youtube vids 1 and 2 located here:
Vid 1: http://youtu.be/lbyVvR7eWBw
Vid 2: http://youtu.be/_GGZI6lHQAE

 

[chuckorlando]

Nice. Glad you got it worked out. Can you not rapid back to start the next pass? You would cut your cycle time alot.

 

[Ray C]

Great to see/hear and I'm glad you got it all sorted out... Very happy for you.:thumbzup3:



Now lets have a little talk about clamping... We gotta get you on a better path in that department. -Not trying to pop your bubble -just trying to keep you from getting an axe head stuck in your guts.


Ray

 

[JimDawson]

I'm happy to see success. It has taken a while but looks like it was worth it in the end. And the best part is that you and your son are getting in some quality time.

 

[countryguy]

Ray- Bring it on! Love to hear what I need to do. I did get into some "Milling workclamp" text on my intro-book. But it basically just had a few pictures? It told you to have something on each side of the clamp. a "right" and "wrong" over a few pics. I would love to hear or get some basic "how too's" here from ya'll!

This was a very fun project and now the Kid is also looking at a beat up, worn down #2 Cinnci Grinder. I think I did too good a job on the Mill machine repair and he's expecting Scotty to beam down again.... LOL I looked at him dead on and said I'm on VACATION! lol... I earned it. Go make some axes kiddo!

Great to see/hear and I'm glad you got it all sorted out... Very happy for you.



Now lets have a little talk about clamping... We gotta get you on a better path in that department. -Not trying to pop your bubble -just trying to keep you from getting an axe head stuck in your guts.


Ray

 

[Ray C]

Ray- Bring it on! Love to hear what I need to do. I did get into some "Milling workclamp" text on my intro-book. But it basically just had a few pictures? It told you to have something on each side of the clamp. a "right" and "wrong" over a few pics. I would love to hear or get some basic "how too's" here from ya'll!

This was a very fun project and now the Kid is also looking at a beat up, worn down #2 Cinnci Grinder. I think I did too good a job on the Mill machine repair and he's expecting Scotty to beam down again.... LOL I looked at him dead on and said I'm on VACATION! lol... I earned it. Go make some axes kiddo!

I've been known to design a tab into the part for the sole purpose of having a place to clamp it. I manually remove the tab when I'm done. Anyhow, it's best to not put the piece right on the bed but rather, put a piece of aluminum plate between the bed and the part. Also, one clamp is never enough. If the part slips, it will likely get ruined and possibly break a bit -and in the worst case, the part could go flying. When the energy behind a 1 or 2 HP motor turns into kinetic energy, that part could easily go flying 30' across the shop -or get stuck in your midsection.

Your piece is a hard one to work on but, most likely, I would find the most convenient place on the part to design-in a tab.

Ray

 

[pdentrem]

I agree about better clamping. If you do not break the tool, the part will fly. At a minimum, a few toe clamps and a stop to help hold the part down on the table. Look at Kopal Mini Clamp at Mitee-Bite. There are many other systems out there.

As for the milling path in the second video, you could use a circular path instead of feed, up, return, offset, down repeat. That way you can keep milling in the preferred direction and not lose all that time for the machine to reset the tool to the new start position.
Pierre

 

[John Hasler]

I agree about better clamping. If you do not break the tool, the part will fly. At a minimum, a few toe clamps and a stop to help hold the part down on the table. Look at Kopal Mini Clamp at Mitee-Bite. There are many other systems out there.
Pierre

Since you are running production I suggest that you design and fabricate some custom fixtures. Done right it will be safer and faster.

 

[JimDawson]

Where possible I design in bolt holes so I can bolt the part down to the table or to a backing plate. Depending on what I am working on, I use MDF or aluminum bolted to the table t-slots with flat head screws, then either bolt or screw to that, or place the part over the T-slots and run the bolts through the backing material.

If I am doing a lot of parts, I build a fixture to hold the work, this might consist of a milled cavity to fit the part, or a flat plate with strategically placed dowel pins, and a clamping method. You are only limited by your imagination when it comes to fixturing.