HOLY CRAP THIS IS HARD! pics

[FizzledFiend]

I thought it would be simpler than this...man oh man I was a master @ the ole etch-a-sketch, but you throw in those extra axises and MAN it gets hard. Spoke with JFettig a few min ago and he handed me a few pointers. Thanks m8!

anyways I learned a few things today.

1. 7 hours isn't enough time to setup a mill from scratch, learn to mill, and complete a block in.

2. Antifeeze actually will work for a cheap coolant

3. coolant not only protects your mills it prevents the metal from warping from heat!

4. A dial indicator is worth it wieght in gold.

5. Facing mills are the ticket.

6. Don't forget to square your vise :shrug: *who knew?*

7. more than 4 hours sleep is required the night before you work your brain in new ways!

OK OK so some of this stuff is elementary, but I recon if most of you went thru this to....atleast I hope so. What I mean to say is I'm a noob, your not. Your smart, I'm stupid. Your good looking, Im ugly

Anywho here are some pics of the big toy finally up and running and chewing on it's first piece of copper!

Image 1 is of the toy in all it's dirty glory ... you should see the rest of the shop...I need more room!

Image 2 is when I realized I had a problem. Now I assumed that the piece was square from the factory and all I was going to do was take this layer of rubber coating off of it. (found this nice fat slab 1.5 foot long by 3/4 thick by 4.5 inches wide @ a salvage wearhouse for 20 bucks) I apparently came out of some whirlpool equipment, cause it said whirlpool on it.
It wasn't cutting flush in fact it looks like something is off kilter!...DOH I never actually used my sweep dial to zero my mill head to the table! Another 2 hours later and the beast is square to withing .01 of an inch!

Image 3 is my second run @ it after squaring the mill head to the table. Ok now what gives? Was getting a visable grove from pass to pass. So I moved my mill head over a bit more for an overlap. Same thing happend...gears in head start grinding...felt of the copper plate and it was HOT HOT!..warpage! time to construct some sort of coolant system.
Best Idea I think I had all day really. It seemed so apt that I was trying to make a water block to cool my pc, that I should try to cool it with water. Wait a minute water rust metal and I don't want a rusty machine..again the ole PC head start working and ANTIFREEZE! yuppers 4 gallons of antifreeze and 1 gallon of water in a 5 gallon bucket. My ehime 1048 pump should do the trick!. *digs thru Milk grate of spare liquid cooling parts. Now thats something!

Image 4 shows my uber leet cooling rig I made for my machine..has a flow control valve and everything! IT WORKS!

Finally 5 hours later we have a smooth finish with hardly any ridges (you can just feel them with your fingertip..lots better than a factory block). Took to long to mill it with a 4 flute 3/4 mill so I am looking into getting a indexable faceing mill....200 USD...maybe later

so thanks for reading about my first day of milling. I got alot accomplished, but not much to show for it, oh and you may be asking about squaring my vise...I actually went to cut the big piece into 2x2 inch squares...it's starts out 2 inches but steadily gets thiner oh well got lots of copper to get it right.

[jaydee]

You should really make some new jaws for that vise to were the material sticks above the vise. Simple to do with some alumium stock.

[jaydee]

Not the greatest angle, but I made those jaws. The material fits flat every time because of the step milled into it. I can face the material without worrying about destroying an expensive vise.

[FizzledFiend]

yup thats on the ever growing list of "things to buy"

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by FizzledFiend

yup thats on the ever growing list of "things to buy"

Errr, maybe things to do? No need to buy anything unless that vices jaw inserts are not removable. If they can be removed then take them out and make some new ones. Then tighten the vise completely closed and use a small endmill to cut a groove down the middle of the inserts.

http://www.sherline.com/3551inst.htm Scroll down and look at parts labled 3 and 4. Those are the inserts I am talking about. You got a capable mill, you can mill all the tooling you need!

[FizzledFiend]

hmm have to have a look @ the vise again...don't recall if i can remove the jaws or not.

[Groth]

Or make/buy a set of parallels.

[nicozeg]

Nico's #1 rule for precicion work:

"Never trust a square angle you don't know its origins"

[SlaterSpeed]

6. Don't forget to square your vise *who knew?*

and keep checking it!

I got cought out the other day. I was milling my mosfet block when i noticed the wall thickness was getting a bit thin! Clocked up the vice and it was 10 thou out! Now that was weird because all the other guys i work with insisted the vice had been on there for months and it had been used 100s of times with no problems. Must have taken a knock i guess?

Moral of the story is dont assume anything! Check Check Check!

You could make some jaws like jaydee says but it means you need a differant set for differant sizes/shapes of meterial. I just use paralells.

[jaydee]

Originally Posted by SlaterSpeed

and keep checking it!

I got cought out the other day. I was milling my mosfet block when i noticed the wall thickness was getting a bit thin! Clocked up the vice and it was 10 thou out! Now that was weird because all the other guys i work with insisted the vice had been on there for months and it had been used 100s of times with no problems. Must have taken a knock i guess?

Doesn't that piss you off! happens at my place of work all the time. Not machining but same type pf bullshit with jigs. "Oh I made 200 frames on that jig, it is perfect" only to find it a 1/2" out of square. Then you got to send some out to inspect those 200 frames and find were the jig started to get out of square and spend the rest of the day fixing them... And people wonder why I am short tempered!

[Stang_Man]

Originally Posted by jaydee116

Doesn't that piss you off! happens at my place of work all the time. Not machining but same type pf bullshit with jigs. "Oh I made 200 frames on that jig, it is perfect" only to find it a 1/2" out of square. Then you got to send some out to inspect those 200 frames and find were the jig started to get out of square and spend the rest of the day fixing them... And people wonder why I am short tempered!

same shit happens everywhere...

people expect it to be fine and stop measuring the part.. and then all of a sudden, 100 parts go by that are now junk because they got too much cut off...

[FizzledFiend]

yeah but I just want to make 1 perfect one LOL....as soon as today is over I will know when i will be able to work on this again.
my jaws are removable but they are much taller than the vise it's self so I ain't sure how well that would work...recon i will just get me some paralels and be done with it