Superfly Crash...and recovery

[GLCarlson]

Notes from a recent unpleasant experience, in the hope that it'll save somebody else a few days.

I was using the Superfly (with the Al insert) to square up some wooden puzzle parts. That, by the way, works great- a glass smooth finish on hardwoods like jatoba, cocobolo, bloodwood, maple- pretty much anything. This was quick 'n dirty time, so all done by hand. And at one point, I was on the wrong axis, and drove the Superfly into the vise. Loud clunk. Took a pretty good piece out of the replaceable jaw.

On inspection, I clearly hit the insert holder bar as well as the insert (which was cracked). Stuck a new insert in, and finished up the project - oddly enough, without any problem. Oddly, because when I took a good look at the insert holder, it was clear that the new insert wasn't seating correctly.

Ordered new holder from Tormach. Insert still wouldn't seat right. A careful look showed that the screw head on the old screw was cocked. A new screw in combination with a new holder solved the problem. Both screw head and holder were out of alignment.

The reason this is worth a note is that Tormach sells screws separately from the holder, and does not include a screw with a new holder bar. Nor do they claim they do! They're listed separately as parts for the Superfly. But, it's easy to assume (as I did) that a holder would also include a screw, and wind up having to wait for a second parts shipment. Not looking carefully at the parts list cost me another week and twice the postage. As lessons go, not so terrible, but surely annoying.

If you crash your Superfly, check out the screw as well as the insert and the holder. And if you need a holder, be sure to order a screw as well.

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[sansbury]

I killed one Superfly insert holder when a part lifted out of the vise. The holder cracked right along the screw hole. Tormach was generous enough to replace it under warranty when I emailed asking about how to buy a replacement. Considering the crash, I can't really fault the holder for failing.

FWIW, while I like mine, I've had a hard time using it for what I originally got it for, which was milling off leftover stock from the backside of parts after flipping them. If you're taking any real DOC, it applies a LOT of force to the part, so it needs to be held really, really well to prevent it from lifting the part. I've had setups that were fine for moderately aggressive milling with a 1/2" EM that the Superfly yanked the part right out of. Would probably be fine with soft jaws, but I'm doing mostly prototyping so I try to get away with as little part-specifc workholding as possible.

I'm thinking for this purpose I'd get a lot more use out of a 1" face mill or something similar. It is still a really nice tool for facing solid stock where I can crank the vise down, or where I want to put a fine finish on something and just need a light pass or two.

[MichaelHenry]

Tormach's little face mill (35 mm?) does a nice job on facing alumium.

Mike

[sansbury]

Man, I hope so, you're looking at $300 by the time you're done for one of those, and you get the opportunity to lunch $40 of inserts if you $#@! up

Now I'm kind of tempted to try shortening the Superfly down as much as possible and see how that is. The fact that it was ~$125 and only needed one insert was a big selling point for me.

[popspipes]

I use a shars 2 1/2" 4 insert face mill 20 degree rake, does a nice job facing off, I think it was around 100 dollars , set of 4 inserts for 20 bucks or so, The arbor wasnt included. I was concerned about the power needed but it pulls it just fine with a reasonable doc.

[photomankc]

FWIW, while I like mine, I've had a hard time using it for what I originally got it for, which was milling off leftover stock from the backside of parts after flipping them. If you're taking any real DOC, it applies a LOT of force to the part, so it needs to be held really, really well to prevent it from lifting the part. I've had setups that were fine for moderately aggressive milling with a 1/2" EM that the Superfly yanked the part right out of. Would probably be fine with soft jaws, but I'm doing mostly prototyping so I try to get away with as little part-specifc workholding as possible.

Hah! This is true. The only part launch I've had came doing exactly that with 2" 45* facemill. I had a row of like 10 small parts on a stock base that I needed to mill the base away from. Everything was great until the final pass. Once the stock disconnected from the first part and it was now a long thing springboard, it bounced around, flipped up into the cutters and ripped the remaining parts out of the vice and into the wall. Thankfully it went to the back wall because of cutting direction. That moment sobered me up quite a bit too. It hit that wall with some force. I've found thus far that unless my vise can get a really solid grip on the finished part it's dangerous to try to facemill off that stock base. It also seems too that a significant DOC is better, That final bit of stock is far less flexible up if its .050 or 0.060 deep or better.