The Sequel - Oh Blimey I bought a CNC Lathe (Beaver TC 20)

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Sea.dog:
Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey. Looking good, Andrew.

awemawson:
Thanks Graham,

At long last the second side is milled. It was not an easy journey however. At one point I was watching it about to change tools having finished a particular pocket and about to drill some holes and it picked up my delicate and expensive Heidenhain probe, and was rushing at the surface with it :bugeye:

I just managed to hit the eStop in time to save the probe, but then had to investigate why. It turned out that I'd changed the spot drill in the simulation to a 10 mm one but not specified which pocket it was in so it defaulted to the highest number - where the probe is :bang:

I edited out all the features already machined and carried on - all went well until tapping the six M10 sockets to mount the A2-5 chuck. Seems that the tap was longer than I'd specified, bottomed out and broke - my last M10 spiral flute tap :bang: Again I edited out the tapping and prior actions and re-ran the program to completion.

I will have to EDM out the tap and re-work things but I'm nearly there !

(but WHY did I start ????)

Sea.dog:
These CNC machines are the work of the Devil :lol:

At least you're lucky enough to have an EDM machine. How many others can say that they do?

Muzzerboy:
Was that rigid tapping? I can't do that on my machine, so I either use a tension compression head or thread mill (I must admit I've only done this once so far). I have those torque limiting tap holders for my tension compression head and fondly imagine they would reduce the chances of a broken tap. Can't help thinking I might be a little disappointed if (when) the time comes.

So now you are set for another journey before the job is done, this time on the EDM. Nothing's easy but at least we will get some interest out of it!

awemawson:
It should have been one of the stretchy holders that allow for slight pitch / feed discrepancies but I'm not sure it it is as the machine tucked it away in the carousel before I could grab it - another job for tomorrow to check - replacement spiral flute machine taps on order!

But in any case it was my own fault. Too long a tap in too short a hole never ends happily !

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