My New 24x24 V-Groove Router Design Log

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by BobWarfield Another awesome Widgit design taking shape. This will be fun! Best, BW

Thanks Bob,
Glad to see your out of the office and back in the Zone !
I'm anxiously waiting for materials, as I have burned out from doing production!
Life's no fun without Prototypes!!

Eric

[widgitmaster]

Good news!

UPS dropped of the materials for this NEW 24x24 V-Router, so I'll be working on those parts this weekend!

Widgit

[widgitmaster]

The materials are here, and the milling has started! So far, I have squared up the block for the X-Axis slide block, and the two "L" shaped rail supports. To do this I had to put two 6" Kurt vises on the mill, and center them under the mills travel limits.

Next, I'll put on some soft jaws and remove massive amounts of aluminum to create the "L" shape in the two rail supports. The X-Axis slide block will need to be milled with the vise turned 90°

The 24x24 top plate has arrived, along with the two Ball Screw & Nut sets. The Double-V tracks and slide assemblies have also arrived. Oh yea, the Front & Rear plates too!

[widgitmaster]

A busy day in the shop!
So far I have milled out the bulk of material creating the "L", leaving .025" for cleanup. Then I milled the top section of the track using a standard end mill, but removing the material under the track is a bit tricky!
To do this, I used a Woodruff Key cutter. But first I needed to thin down the shank in my surface grinder, using a simple spin jig and a 5C collet.
After all the long milling cuts were done, I milled one end of each.
I plan on milling them to finished length later on.

It was fun watching the chips pile up. as I started with an empty bucket which filled to the rim! The pile was a foot high! I figured I have at least a barrel of chips from this project!

When the Double-V Rails are fastened to this support, they will be as solid as a rock!

Total shop time: 6hr
Widgit


VIDEO (7.6 MB)

[ClaudioG]

Looking good Widgit.

What do you do with all those chips??

Cheers,

Claudio

[widgitmaster]

While standing in front of my mill dodging hot chips, I counted how many seconds it took for the end mill to go from one end to the other! Here is what I came up with (hope my math is OK)

My mill has an el-chepo power feed ASONG AS-250, 150 oz/in torque.

With maximum feed:
41 sec => 23"
23/41=.560976 sec/inch x 60 = 33.6585 (33.7 Inches Per Minute)

Widgit

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by ClaudioG Looking good Widgit. What do you do with all those chips?? Cheers, Claudio

I sell them to the scrap man, and buy new endmills!

[BobWarfield]

Looks like your big flycutter got snuck in there to make it purty too, no?

BTW, someone was saying over on PM that a PCD insert on a big fly cutter makes the nicest aluminum finish if you care about the cosmetics. Normally, they are stupid expensive, but I found a few for cheap on eBay and plan to try it out.

Best,

BW

[widgitmaster]

Originally Posted by BobWarfield Looks like your big flycutter got snuck in there to make it purty too, no? BTW, someone was saying over on PM that a PCD insert on a big fly cutter makes the nicest aluminum finish if you care about the cosmetics. Normally, they are stupid expensive, but I found a few for cheap on eBay and plan to try it out. Best, BW

Actually, I hand sharpen my own tool bits for my Fly Cutter, and I can get a better finish just by using the right hook angle and radius combination!
The blanks sell for a dollar or two! I use eithe HSS, Cobalt, or Carbide, depending on what material I'm cutting.

Widgit

[.xXACEXx.]

lookin good widgit' , also good pics ,i know it takes a while to take all those pictures ,and then post them,but they look good, would be nice to use a .015 end mill to cut that stock out, with a slot on one side then flip it up and do the same on the other side, you would then have a nice peice of stock left over then ,instead of a few buckets of chips (joke) lookin good tho,keep up the good work!

[widgitmaster]

Another busy day is the garage!
Today I started working on the X-Axis slide block. The slide block will have a bore in the center for the Ball Nut to nest in to, and have 4 small V-Groove bearings on each end.

To make this big slide block, I started with a 24 1/4 x 4 1/4 x 3 block of 6061 aluminum. The block had been all squared up a few days ago, and now it's time to add the details on the ends for the V-Groove bearings.

I started by removing the two vises, cleaned up the table area, and trammed the head. Then I put a vise up in the long direction, and trammed it in. Next I added some soft aluminum jaws, and milled them true.

Now with a stop on the vise, I can flip the block and do the same detail on each end. After the hook was milled on the ends, I re-positioned the turret, and started the detail in the center of one side of the block. This worked out well, as I now have 50% of the block finished in one morning!

Next I sprayed a little blue ink on one side, and used the height gage to scribe my layout lines to guide me through the rest of the part. Because there was a significantly larger amount of material to remove, I decided to push the block through the band saw to eliminate the bulk of material. The band saw cut a full 1/8" away from my lines!

The pile of chips is getting deeper & deeper!

Widgit

[widgitmaster]

Well, after lunch I went back out to the shop and finished the other side of the X-Axis slide block! First I milled the boss in the center of the part, then I milled the height to its finish dimension.

Next I used my face mill to remove all the flat surfaces, and finished up with the 45° cutter.

Usually when milling a 45° angle, all you need to do is set the point to zero using a gage block, then sneak up on the blended intersections. After setting the DRO to zero, and the mill's knee to zero, all you need to do is drop the knee .200 and move the table .200 to walk the cutter up the angle! But my cheesy Enco end mill is NOT a true 45°, so it left deep lines where it mismatched with each step-over

That is depressing, as everything else on the part was perfect!

So now I have the two base rail supports, and the X-Axis slide block!
This machine is starting to look really cool! I only hope it's a rigid as I tried to make it!

Total shop time 8-hr
Widgit