Machinists Corner I would like to start a thread of Q's and A's for anything to do with machining. I am a machinist and i see many other guys on here are as well or are trying to become a DIY machinist to save money in these hard times. So whether you have a question on how to do something specific to CNC or even hand milling/ turning or an answer to the question post here. Keep Chit Chat to a minimum to make it an easy to read and find thread. Between my boss and I we have over 35 years experience as machinists. |
Re: Machinists Corner I like this idea We may need to talk to the mods/rcc folk to maybe even get a sub section. |
Re: Machinists Corner X2 "thumbsup", I'm moving from a drill press and scroll saw to a mill/ lathe now. My machine came from Ann Arbor. |
Re: Machinists Corner This is awesome. I only have a few years (2) experience but owning and trying to make your own equipment sure teaches you a lot fast :) One little money saving tip I know, and it sounds silly, is to make as much of your own clamps and stuff as you can if possible. You would be surprised how fast that stuff adds up when you really add it up :evil: and never underestimate C-clamps, they do come in handy "thumbsup" |
Re: Machinists Corner I'll through out the first question. Will I need a follow rest to turn 4" long pieces of 1/4" titanium rod to 3/16"? The rod is 12" long , but want to turn 4" at a time. |
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One tip when turning titanium. Oil and an air blast on the tool, even low PSI really helps blow the chips away and keep the smoke out of your face and the area cut cooler. |
Re: Machinists Corner Thanks for the input Calvin, when I just purchased my machine the steady and follow rest was on back order so I'll have to wait a couple weeks till they are in stock. Quote:
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Re: Machinists Corner Cool idea. I will help when I can."thumbsup" 7+yrs of CNC experience. |
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Problem with titanium is it eats the cutting edge and puts a lot of force on the cutter which causes deflection. For turning a diameter that small on a conventionial engine lathe yeah a follower rest will help if you have one small enough. Honestly thats a centerless grinding or swiss lathe job.(sliding headstock and bushing) Best bet is to save the aggrevation and buy a 3/16" piece of stock. |
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Re: Machinists Corner I have been metalworking for about 10 years but recently got into machining (again) recently. I use a cheapo drill press from HF, along with a cross slide vise bolted to it. The vise I found on eBay for 50$. I just bought a band saw and non-ferrous metal cutting blade from HF for about 120 which works awesome! The cross slide vise is a bit sloppy, but tighten the adjustment screws, keep my math skills somewhat current, and I'm doing ok with what little I have. I wanted a jet hand mill of course, but let's just agree having a toddler and house shifts priorities a bit. So far I made axle mounts, ax10 tranny mounts, bumpers, frame rails, tools and more and I learn more each time to make something! I noticed one super important thing: the slower I go, the better the piece turns out =P. just my two cents. |
Re: Machinists Corner hopefully this thread sticks around, i'm going to school(takin prerequisites now) for precision machining :mrgreen: |
Re: Machinists Corner Also willing to help anyone out who has any questions. 7-8 years of 4 axis CNC milling experience and of course some manual machining experience as well. Got myself a little bench top mill now since I dont work as a machinist anymore, had to since I was getting the shakes for machining withdrawals haha "thumbsup". Here are my tips for the weekend warriors out there:
Patience is the key to getting good at machining. Any time you start to rush you will probably screw something up, dont worry we all do it! I will have to snap some cool pictures of stuff that I have made, I have some cool stuff I have lying around. Now I just need to justify a CNC conversion on my little mill so I can make some more complicated stuff without it taking me forever. |
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Actually the rod will have 3 or 4 O.D.'s 3/16" 75% of the length,and I wanted to buy the follow and steady rest when I purchased my machine but they are still on backorder. Thanks for all the input guys, this thread already "ROCKS". |
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Lots of good info "thumbsup". I plan on at a later date to get the DRO retrofit for my machine to help with any backlash issuses that cannot be adjusted out. There is a CNC retrofit available too, but I don't think I will try that route myself. |
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The best is finding 3/16 dia rod. Dont make more of a job than it needs to be. I dont make anything without a drawing it on cad. Simple cad. That way I dont worry about the design and concentrate on the part. Be very careful and have fun Evan |
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Re: Machinists Corner New to the site, but over 10 years experience here as well. The majority of it as a standalone programmer/prototype-for-production machinist supporting about 10 full-time engineers. In the last year, I programmed and machined over 300 unique aerospace parts :) |
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You are correct in everything you said. It is so hard to tell what turning a dia really means. What is important the ends or the center or all. What kind of tolerance and surface finish. What tool type to use. I have a tool post grinder for my lathe. If i want the better I use my tool post grinder. Best I send them out to be center less ground. Part deflection is a major part of machining. Yes if you push to hard on a small dia the tool will try to get under the rod. Yes if you don't spring cut you my find an ugly amount of dia change. Even thought Ti is tough I use high speed steel on finish cuts because carbide requires more pressure than HHS. Machine Questions Everybody will have there way and advice. Read them all and take what you want. Who I am: No production here. I take it as slow as I need to get the final product I want. If I don't then I will be disappointed and I will have to do it again. Thanks dkf great comments Evan |
Re: Machinists Corner Mods/Admin can we get a subsection in Tools and Procedures dedicated to machining? Im thinking of doing some cool tutorials/how to's and it would be cool to have a place to dedicate to machining questions and whatnot. Anyone have any manual milling questions that would translate into cool tutorials? |
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GlacernMachineTools's Channel - YouTube "thumbsup" |
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How bout we just make this thread a sticky first, see how much attention it draws. "thumbsup" Lots of good advise in this thread. One very good point..... Quote:
I mainly run a handful of traditional style lathes. From small collet lathes to bigger lathes with 30" of swing. Some CNC stuff. Occasionally some mill work. The old school stuff is and always has been allot more interesting to me. I typically only work on 1-5 part runs or prototype parts, so, the manual machines is where I stay most of the time. One thing I was taught a long time ago, if your grinding your own tools... By changing the edge break, relief angle, radius of the cutting edge or other parts of your tool, you can get different results in tool performance and/or finish. |
Re: Machinists Corner I have talked to different people running drill press hand mills and it seems to be difficult to figure out what speed to run your bits at for end milling, and is there a tooling speed recommendation between different grades of aluminum. Furthermore when working with "soft" steel how slow should the bit be spinning? TIA (I should know this but metalshop was sooooooo long ago. Our hand mill was set for aluminum only) |
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Other than those numbers for aluminum I love the Niagara A377 TiCN coated end mills. They are flat out amaaazing... check out Travers Tool since they almost always seem to have them on sale :roll: and since they are "made for aluminum" they really do cut nicer! I also use them all the time on plastics since the coating helps increase tool life and reduce the risk of melted plastic when I don't have the convenience of air blast :evil: |
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When I am manual machining I mostly just run by feel and sound. Feeds and speeds are something that you develop over time and although the tooling manufacturers typically have recommendations no 2 cuts are ever the same. When you are taking a cut you want to hear a nice even hum coming from the tool, you dont want it to sound really choppy and broken up. In general if the tool chatters or squeaks you are either spinning it too fast or not feeding it fast enough and the tool is having a hard time taking material off, instead the tool is rubbing the surface and you are really just creating a lot of extra heat that you dont want. There is a direct relationship between the spindle speed and the feed that needs to be maintained to have a quality cut and surface finish. Your machine will play a large role in your feeds and speeds, rigidity is the key here. Sounds like you are running on a converted drill press, typically they are not as rigid as a dedicated mill because they were not intended to have a side load on the spindle so you will probably need to adjust for that. I would suggest that you get a scrap of your material and take some cuts in it with a couple different feeds/speeds and see what your machine seems to like. Start with a lower spindle speed then you think you should be at and make a cut, as you get more comfortable you can start being more aggressive. |
Re: Machinists Corner Ok just got a chavalear surface grinder at auction and have been putting it together. I have been having a couple problems the table will feed out but when it reaches over travel and or to the end of the programmed travel it will not feed inward. Any suggestions? Also it seems like it takes a lot of work trying to mess with the program buttons to get the hydrolic pum to engage. |
Re: Machinists Corner Anyone here have an indexing head? do you know how to cut gears? Is a 3 wire measurement important? |
Re: Machinists Corner Three wire is extremely important. The reason being it gives you critical measurements fort the angles and spaces between teeth and threads. Think of it as measuring the exact spot were the gears will mesh. |
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This should allow making hexes and bolt circles easier too. |
Re: Machinists Corner I have the older (grey) harbor freight 44142 3in1 with the r8 taper and I have outfitted the y and x axes with dro's. I also got a indexing head. I haven't cut gears in 10 years and the last set I cut was also my first. I have an Exceed MaxStone 1/8 that I wanted to put metal gears in and they're currently unavailable so I thought I might try to make some. Keep in mind I have a vertical mill without an adjustable knee. The setup would take a lot of work and the end result would probably be substandard. Do you think it's even worth the effort? |
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Precision Mechanical Components Timing Belts Pulleys Spur Gears Couplings Bearings Sprockets Retaining Rings Brakes Helical Gears Clutches Universal Joints |
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If you could post a picture I might be able to remember the process of getting it to work. As for the gears its not something I have ever messed with, too much tooling involved to make it worth while in my mind when there are so many options available commercially. You guys ignited the fire under my butt and I got my GF to buy me a rotary table/chuck for my B-Day...You are all bad influences! |
Re: Machinists Corner Gear cutting sounds fun but also VERY confusing... ive personally NEVER done it, ive wanted to try but never had an excuse yet (if Axial keeps up NOT offering their gears tho im going to start thinking of making my own :lmao:) big thing is the cutters and they aren't cheap! Sure you can grind your own but it isn't as good as buying one made for gar cutting. This guy, in his own funny way, shows how he makes gear and i must say its quite time consuming. Ive seen it done a CNC with a 4th axis and that's speedy :mrgreen: Machining a Spur Gear - YouTube 707, a handy tool for doing quick hex and square stuff is a 5C collet block in hex and square. Really handy and you can use it with a stop of sorts to do all kinds of fancy indexing :twisted: |
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I thought about getting a set but I dont have any 5c collets and by the time I get a decent set I might as well have bought the rotary table that I bought. |
Re: Machinists Corner If you work with any kind of round stock, a 5C collet set is worth the investment. The square and hex collet holders are very handy, and they are so useful for so many different things. I also like the vertical/horizontal 5C collet fixture. I used to drill my delrin crossbars on the lathe, but it was so time consuming. Now I drill them on the mill and it takes no time at all. This is the one I have at home: http://www1.mscdirect.com/ProductImages/0967101-11.jpg But I also like this one that we have at work: http://www1.mscdirect.com/ProductImages/0968025-11.jpg |
Re: Machinists Corner So what is the cutter called that you would cut teeth on a spur gear and where do you find them? |
Re: Machinists Corner MSC, Traverse, JT tool and Enco are the top suppliers I know that sell involute cutters "thumbsup" |
Re: Machinists Corner I looked online and I can't find a metal strength chart as to what metal is stronger and such. Like 4130, 4330, 300m strength which ones are stronger etc. Anybody have a link to such a critter? |
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Thanks for the input "thumbsup". I have a 5 1/2" dia. 72 tooth bull gear I need to cut for my other lathe. |
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