Hi all! After waffling for too long, I am finally going to push my little mill to the limits as far as speed and accuracy. I have VM 4.0, and since I still suck at Rhino, I have imported an IGES file... it is a 1/4 scale lower reciever of an AR15. I am going to mill exactly 1/2 of this into a block of aluminum. The shapes and curves in the model will be a good challenge.

The file imported perfectly. The stock measures 1" X 2". This whole thing is purely an exercise in VM and the mill itself. All of the cuts must be done with 1/8" carbide end mills until I can get more collets for my Kavo spindle.

With very little experience with VM, high-speed spindles, and CNC in general, I have done my best, and the simulation looks good. If there are any VM gurus out there who might want to look at the .vmp file and critique the heck out of it, I'd love to get their remarks and input on improving this. Then, I'm going to give it a shot.

The file is 1 meg: http://www.5bears.com/vmp/25_ar.vmp

Again thanks to anyone who goes to the trouble of looking at it.

:rainfro:

As an addendum to the above posting, I'm having a hell of a time cleaning up inside the trigger guard area. Is there some way to designate selected MESH(ES) into REGIONS useful for certain machining ops? It's tough using the Regions toolbar to get just what I want.

TY all

Swede,

One word of caution...big caution! If you are machining a working model of the afore mentioned action, please double check the ATF rules and regs on the manufacture of a semi auto. I haven't been on line in a couple of days and am trying to get kinda caught up in 20 minutes or I would look it up for you. Please check it out before you proceed further.
Mike

:) Thanks for the warning Termite. It's a 1/4 scaling of the lower reciever. I took the size from full scale (8" X 2") to 2" x 1", almost jewelry-sized, to speed up the machining but still retain the shape. It would not be considered a firearm. It's just an exercise in VM.

Good job Swede!
You asked for help... Well i learned some with your VMP file!
thanks!

Ito.