Gallery, Projects and General > How do I??

How do I - locate centre and position end mill? - basic milling.

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bogstandard:
Chris,

Holding the job safely is the most important thing in milling.

If you have a block that is rough sawn with nothing square on all six sides, how do you hold it in a perfectly parallel set of jaws without it becoming loose and flying out of the jaws? And no, belting on the vice handle with a big hammer isn't the answer. I will give you the answer with one of my c-o-c's.

You mount the part with the straightest edge against the fixed jaw, and the piece of ali bar trapped between the piece part and the moveable jaw. By very carefully skimming the top face down, you will end up with a perfectly flat face. That flat face is then put against the fixed jaw and again with the bit of ali in the same position. The second face is then gently cut.

The first face is then set down onto a parallel with the now flat second face against the fixed jaw, again the piece of ali is put in.
The third face is now cut.

You will now have three faces square to each adjoining face, and sides 1 & 3 will be parallel to each other. By setting the second side down onto parallels, and sides 1 & 3 clamped between the jaws, the ali bit is now finished with, and by cutting across the top face, all sides should be parallel and square to each other.

There are a few ways to get the ends straight and square, but I will let you find that out for yourself.

I will keep saying this, there are no shortcuts, this was just getting a bit of metal squared up, and that is only one job from millions upon millions that you could come across. You need to get the basic techniques under your belt before even considering jobs that require maybe a couple of dozen, or sometimes hundreds of operations to make one part.

If you notice Darren, he has done almost everything off his own back, the hard way, basically by trial and error, and he will tell you, it is a very expensive way to go. But I am sure he now realises, that if he had sorted the basics out to begin with, his journey would have been a lot smoother and less costly.

I know it is difficult for you, but just to reiterate, for someone to write down everything that you would ask for would be a full time job. I taught John S over the internet by emails how to machine his way to success, day after day for well over two years, he is making lovely stuff all by himself now, with just the occasional question from him and answer from me. I have my own mentor, and occassionally I seek his advice over how to machine something up, and I am sure, if his mentor was still alive, he would put questions to him.

Very few jobs are as straightforwards as you think, and not all can be learned in a few weeks.

Getting back to your original post of how would I make that.

Over on HMEM, and the article should still be over there somewhere, a gent asked if I could help him out to cut a fairly easy cam using the RT. I stayed awake almost all night writing it up, move to this angle, offset in the X to this setting etc. and posting it onto the site. By following my instructions to the letter, he had the job done in next to no time. Would I do it again, a definite no. But I will help someone as much as I can, if they are willing to put the same amount of work or even more to help gain the knowledge and experience.

This post has most probably taken me more than an hour. So Chris, what hours knowledge are you going to learn on your own in return?

John (after his pound of flesh)

CrewCab:

--- Quote from: craynerd on May 21, 2009, 08:47:46 AM ---when you say a boring bar, on the lathe in a 4 jaw?

--- End quote ---

Another way, and perhaps more suited would be to securely clamp the work to a faceplate, you might need to pack it off a little as well to avoid cutting the faceplate with the boring bar.

The guys are right in that work holding is one of the most important aspects of milling, it quite often takes much longer to set up a job than actually do the machining.  Your quite right to ask, just take it a step at a time, and most of all stay safe.

CC

Stilldrillin:
Very well explained John.....  :clap:

By `ek you`ve got much more time & patience than me!  :headbang:

David D

Darren:

--- Quote from: bogstandard on May 21, 2009, 09:58:51 AM ---
If you notice Darren, he has done almost everything off his own back, the hard way, basically by trial and error, and he will tell you, it is a very expensive way to go. But I am sure he now realises, that if he had sorted the basics out to begin with, his journey would have been a lot smoother and less costly.



--- End quote ---

I'm not quite sure that's how I see it?

I enjoyed myself, I learn't a lot and it didn't cost that much?, about the same as buying the tools I made, roughly....

Plus I know now how to deal with some really difficult materials that many wouldn't attempt to use in the first place.


My two penith.... :thumbup:

SPiN Racing:
My 2CP on the whole thing....


Listen to John... Listen to the guys here.


I am very new to things. VERY NEW. The biggest thing you can do is read the writeups. How are other guys going about making things?  What are they doing.. and try to figure out how what you want to do overlaps with thier stuff.

The Project builds are a great teaching tool. Read them. The guys have a ton of info in there.. and it may seem it doesnt always apply to what you want to do.. but you will be reading them and suddenly the light goes on.. and you think.. OH WAIT... THAAAAATTTTTSSSS how you do that!!!


I would think.. Make sure you have stuff locked down. Learn to tram the head of the Mill. And then CAREFULLY SLOWLY start making shavings.  Try with making a block smaller. Pick a size in your head. And go for it.  If its 5x7x3  Make it 4.5x6.5x2.5  And see how accurate you can get it.

If you do fine.. YAY! Pick something else to try.
If you dont.. try to make it a little smaller accurately.

Pick something "simple" to make. Something you want to make. SO you are motivated to make it.. and then carefully start trying to make it.

Read everything you can about making that item.. search all over. Watch clips, and read writeups.
The knowledge of how to make them and the techniques are not things you know automatically so a bit of searching and reading for the tricks is the way to go.  I found I thought "hey.. here is how I would do this..." then I looked around afterwards and people were doing the same thing like 100 times easier and faster. I just hadnt seen it before. /shrug

Good Swarf Making!!  :dremel:

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