CNC Milled Control Arm Mockup-First Attempt

[GTmike400]

Heres the first thing I've ever made on the CNC mill. I drew up my control arm (for my scratch built 1/12 scale model street rod) and then wrote the program for it. This is just the mockup piece. The actual control arm will be two halves, and machined in brass instead of aluminum. Tomorrow I will mill off the back so the A-Arm will be seperate.









It was milled out of 6061 using a 1/8" four flute HSS endmill. Then surfaced with a 12mm four flute HSS end mill.

Heres is the almost complete product. Still needs more polishing, and I've still got polish stuck around the sides. Oops.





Thanks for looking!

[trevorhinze]

Very nicely done, I wish that my first part looked that good. Keep up the great work!

[tauscnc]

Great work!! Keep us posted on the airplane it is going on.

taus
www.cuttingedgecnc.com

[Kevin45]

GTMike....If I may give a little word of advice that may help you out in the future...when plunging down into aluminum you are better off using a two flute endmill all for the fact that a 2 flute is a center cut endmill but not all four flute endmills are centercut. Four flutes that small also have a tendency to load up quicker than a 2 flute. A little dribble of oil will keep that from happening. As for the A-Arm. Thumbs up!!! Looks great. Now all you have to do is machine the rest of the car.

Kevin

[vacpress]

GTmike. Very nice...

What sort of machine were you using? feeds, RPMs?

I am trying to figure out what this monster i am building will be able to do..

Cheerio

[GTmike400]

Thanks for all the kind remarks.

Kevin, I was using a two flute originally but it was a defective tool and shatter on the first pass. I had to use my finishing four flute to get the job done.

vacpress-I'm using a Denford CNC Mill, Fanuc Controller, but the Mill itself is a Sherline 5000 Series. My units were standard so the feed was 4IPM (.010-.015 off each pass) at 2000 RPM.

If anyone is interested, here is the final piece (pictured above was the mockup).
The shock mounts in the gap with a pin that goes through. The pin is a zero tolerance fit and is hidden once it is put in. It sticks in the hole well, but it also comes out with a nice tap. Note the beginning of the working ball joint half soldered to the bottom half.










Thanks.

[Stevie]

Originally Posted by GTmike400 vacpress-I'm using a Denford CNC Mill, Fanuc Controller, but the Mill itself is a Sherline 5000 Series. My units were standard so the feed was 4IPM (.010-.015 off each pass) at 200 RPM. .

did you by chance miss a zero? on the RPM

[GTmike400]

Originally Posted by Stevie did you by chance miss a zero? on the RPM

Yes I did. Oops. Glad that wasnt the speed I wrote into the code.

[shredder]

nice looking first parts indeed.