New machining video:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bogo1pgy7k"]YouTube- WinchDrumMachining.wmv[/nomedia]
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New machining video:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bogo1pgy7k"]YouTube- WinchDrumMachining.wmv[/nomedia]
Another great vid and great looking part!
Have you got any tips on making soft-jaws - you seem to have a set for every part you make?
I also had a question about the multiple part per operation you do. Have you never had one of the individual parts pop out for you while machining?
Are you using something like paper or teflon tape to take up any "slack"?
Great stuff, thanks for sharing-
Dave
great!
you use alibre for cad, do you also use alibre for cam?
I have downloaded Alibre and altho I am trying to get the lite version for free currently again until I decide what my 3d cad will be I liked what I saw. Just have not been able to put in the time for it so my free trial expired. I am curious as to the CAM side of things, I have read good and bad on it but would love to hear from someone on here that actually uses it every day. It sure looks the part and the cad is from what I hear VERY nice....What i know about 3d cam/cam could be put on the head of a pin but that will not stop me from learning it. The Alibre setup is at least inexpensive and I would love to think it to be my go to program someday.... any thoughts? Oh and by the way, That optimum machine of yours has got to be the meanest coolest baddest most well sorted homebuilt cnc machine I have ever seen run!!! Just beautiful and fast too.... I hope I can get my machine to run as efficiently as you exhibit in these videos someday.,..... you are the man!!! peace
Ive read this from top to bottom.
Wow nice job on the BF20 . I hope I get that good at machining and are able to achieve making parts in the future.
[quote=digits;784702]Another great vid and great looking part!
Have you got any tips on making soft-jaws - you seem to have a set for every part you make?[/quote]
What especially you would like to know?
If you have a vise like that:
[url]http://www.glacern.com/gsv_440[/url]
Copy the dimensions of the original jaws,
maybe make them little higher in Z- direction.
Machine those from thick aluminium, bolt them to your
vise, and then before you machine your parts shape to your
soft jaws: put something thin between your jaws before
you tighten your vise. It could be something like 0.5mm (~0.02 inches)
thick steel ruler, strip of thin sheet metal or something like
that. That will put your jaws apart something like 0.4-1mm when you
tighten your vise.
Then machine your parts shape to your soft jaws. Usually it's some pocket toolpath if you use cam. After that, you will
have your parts shape at your soft jaws. Open the vise, throw
that piece of thin sheet metal away, and there you have
your parts shape at your soft jaws, and also enough gap
between the jaws so that you can tighten your parts well.
I hope that explanation makes some sense. I would have put couple
pictures, but I forgot my camera to my workshop.
Another possibility is to make thinner soft jaws, which lower
part will fit tightly to the slot at the center of the vise.
>you seem to have a set for every part you make?
I would rather not make soft jaws all the time, but
it just seems that all the parts I make will require them :)
[quote=fretsman;784714]I also had a question about the multiple part per operation you do. Have you never had one of the individual parts pop out for you while machining?[/quote]
Parts have been flying around just couple times...
Machine needs to make accurate parts and accurate fixtures/ soft jaws. Ballscrews and linear slides are must. When all the parts have same outer diameter within 0.02mm or something like that, and also fixtures/ soft jaws
dimensions are within 0.01-0.03 according to part dimensions, there is no
problems.
>Are you using something like paper or teflon tape to take up any "slack"?
No, it is not needed when machine has enough accuracy. One thing I do pretty much is that I drive two finish cuts. This small mill will bend and flex
under the cutter force, and when I take very small second finish cut (around 0.2-0.25mm) I can get pretty accurate parts done.
[quote=Teyber12;784774]great!
you use alibre for cad, do you also use alibre for cam?[/quote]
No. Most of my programming that require CAM are done during the evening shift
at work :) Don't tell anybody :)
[quote=pete from TN;784835]I have downloaded Alibre and altho I am trying to get the lite version for free currently again until I decide what my 3d cad will be I liked what I saw. Just have not been able to put in the time for it so my free trial expired. I am curious as to the CAM side of things, I have read good and bad on it but would love to hear from someone on here that actually uses it every day. [/quote]
I can not comment about Alibre CAM as I have not used it.
I have Visualmill demo. It seems to look good and does what I need. Maybe
I will buy basic version, it's reasonable priced.
If 3D toolpaths are not required, there's also SharpCAM:
[url]http://www.sharpcam.co.uk[/url]
It's reasonable priced (595 USD), seems good, very good tutorial videos.
I liked those tutorial videos, things are shown at peaceful pace and professionally.
some computer program teachers swing around like crazy, doing things so fast
as they can. Then they take a liter more coffee during the break and after
that you can be sure that nobody learns nothing :) Or they learn that teacher was very fast :)
[quote=JMI80;785156]Parts have been flying around just couple times...
Machine needs to make accurate parts and accurate fixtures/ soft jaws. Ballscrews and linear slides are must. When all the parts have same outer diameter within 0.02mm or something like that, and also fixtures/ soft jaws
dimensions are within 0.01-0.03 according to part dimensions, there is no
problems.
>Are you using something like paper or teflon tape to take up any "slack"?
No, it is not needed when machine has enough accuracy. One thing I do pretty much is that I drive two finish cuts. This small mill will bend and flex
under the cutter force, and when I take very small second finish cut (around 0.2-0.25mm) I can get pretty accurate parts done.[/quote]
Thanks very much for taking the time to answer my questions. I'm enjoying this thread and appreciate the info you give as well- :)
Dave
JMI80
Just curious, on the 2nd side of the wheel, why not use the fly cutter on the other side instead of the rougher (I believe it was the same rougher from the other side.). Seeing the final product, I am sure you had a good reason. Especially after watching the other videos.
What do you use for chamfering? 90 Degree endmill?
[quote=JMI80;785147]What especially you would like to know?
If you have a vise like that:
[url]http://www.glacern.com/gsv_440[/url]
Copy the dimensions of the original jaws,
maybe make them little higher in Z- direction.
Machine those from thick aluminium, bolt them to your
vise, and then before you machine your parts shape to your
soft jaws: put something thin between your jaws before
you tighten your vise. It could be something like 0.5mm (~0.02 inches)
thick steel ruler, strip of thin sheet metal or something like
that. That will put your jaws apart something like 0.4-1mm when you
tighten your vise.
Then machine your parts shape to your soft jaws. Usually it's some pocket toolpath if you use cam. After that, you will
have your parts shape at your soft jaws. Open the vise, throw
that piece of thin sheet metal away, and there you have
your parts shape at your soft jaws, and also enough gap
between the jaws so that you can tighten your parts well.
I hope that explanation makes some sense. I would have put couple
pictures, but I forgot my camera to my workshop.
Another possibility is to make thinner soft jaws, which lower
part will fit tightly to the slot at the center of the vise.
>you seem to have a set for every part you make?
I would rather not make soft jaws all the time, but
it just seems that all the parts I make will require them :)[/quote]
I like that "impression" method of making a repeatable soft jaw groove for your parts. Kinda how sitting long enough in my chair makes it conform perfectly to my...er body.
Maybe with the next chair I will find some steel rules and compress myself into it-might speed up the effect! :-)
[quote=cjdavis618;785240]JMI80
Just curious, on the 2nd side of the wheel, why not use the fly cutter on the other side instead of the rougher (I believe it was the same rougher from the other side.). Seeing the final product, I am sure you had a good reason.
[/quote]
One reason is that I don't have fly cutter...
It could work just fine, good idea!
I tried to use 40 mm face mill, but part starts to vibrate/ flutter like there's no
tomorrow. It's only 1.3 mm thick at the center, so I was expecting that but I had to try. Finish cut is made with regular 10mm, 4flute HSS end mill.
[quote=cjdavis618;785240]
What do you use for chamfering? 90 Degree endmill?
[/quote]
It's regular 90 degree NC- spot drill. There are especial 4-6 flute solid carbide chamfer mills, but I have not bothered to buy one since I make so small amount of parts. Also when there's no automatic tool changer I try to
use so small amount of tools as possible and avoid manual tool changes. I try
to find multiple tasks for each tool if it's possible.
[quote=JMI80;785147]What especially you would like to know?
If you have a vise like that:
[url]http://www.glacern.com/gsv_440[/url]
Copy the dimensions of the original jaws,
maybe make them little higher in Z- direction.
Machine those from thick aluminium, bolt them to your
vise, and then before you machine your parts shape to your
soft jaws: put something thin between your jaws before
you tighten your vise. It could be something like 0.5mm (~0.02 inches)
thick steel ruler, strip of thin sheet metal or something like
that. That will put your jaws apart something like 0.4-1mm when you
tighten your vise.
Then machine your parts shape to your soft jaws. Usually it's some pocket toolpath if you use cam. After that, you will
have your parts shape at your soft jaws. Open the vise, throw
that piece of thin sheet metal away, and there you have
your parts shape at your soft jaws, and also enough gap
between the jaws so that you can tighten your parts well.
I hope that explanation makes some sense. I would have put couple
pictures, but I forgot my camera to my workshop.
Another possibility is to make thinner soft jaws, which lower
part will fit tightly to the slot at the center of the vise.
>you seem to have a set for every part you make?
I would rather not make soft jaws all the time, but
it just seems that all the parts I make will require them :)[/quote]
Thanks for the detailed reply :cheers:
I guess what I was wondering was how you come up with the tool paths for the jaws when you want to clamp something of fairly large diameter without having to make jaws of the same total thickness as the width (Y-dimension) of the parts. I guess it's not that hard to cut a chunk out of the middle of your part's CAD model, use what's left to make an inverse model for the jaws and then feed that into your CAM tool...
Or I suppose you could even machine the soft jaws with the vice open, but clamping something wide but below the Z of the cutter, using a full part-width toolpath...
[quote=digits;785626]Thanks for the detailed reply :cheers:
I guess what I was wondering was how you come up with the tool paths for the jaws
I suppose you could even machine the soft jaws with the vice open, but clamping something wide but below the Z of the cutter, using a full part-width toolpath...[/quote]
That's just the way these jaws were done. I clamped parallel between the jaws, below the Z level of the cutter toolpath. I attach couple tool path pictures. Very simple, some pocketing and profiling toolpaths. Pics are from Visualmill demo, I'm training and playing with that.
Program does maybe minute of air cutting, but it doesn't matter anything when it needs to be run only once. Things would be different and more program optimisation is needed if 100 or 1000 pieces needs to be done...
You put allot of work and thought into making the bf20 something other than cheap Chinese garbage:) I have one and I'm seriously considering doing what you did with the linear rails because even though the machine was great new the sideways are already starting to be banana shaped:banana: after 6 months of light use because of the long table and gravity. Is there any chance you would consider telling us more specific details about the parts used type of steel used to make the supports for the rails and if at all possible DXF drawings of what you did would be awesome. I think given those things we may see another whole generation of bf20 and G0704 upgrading and modding. I have the chance soon to possibly work with an more experienced engineer from Germany to learn scraping, it would be a great opportunity to perhaps do this at the same time and document the process. Anyway congrats again its a nice machine.