Can I make one suggestion? Where your vise jaws grip the plate machine a dovetail and make a set of master jaws for your vise with the mating dovetail in them. What this does is you don't have to close the vise so hard (this will bow up the top of the plate with a lot of vise pressure) and it also makes the plate more secure from pulling out of the vise jaws.
Man, because of you I switched from Bobcad (gasp!) to Solidworks/HSMXpress. This video helped me a lot, as I wasn't sure how to offset the WCS when you flip the part. (I scrapped a couple parts trying to do the math, lol). For anyone reading this, HSMXpress is well worth the time invested. The Adaptive clearing makes even the toughest jobs so easy. The learning curve is slim. VERY user friendly. Awesome work, keep the HSMXpress videos coming!!
For drilling aluminum, try TIN coated screw machine length parabolic cobalt drills, you don't have enough rpm to take real advantage of carbide, would be leaving lots of money in the drill. Use a SFM of 250 or max rpm. That pecking cycle you found looks very reliable! A properly lubed tap in aluminum should last you 10K+ holes. A blast to watch you learning and showing more all the time!
Brilliant! I am a rookie at cad/cam cnc etc, but an Instrument Maker, all manual, your video I just watched is really informative and the mill is very impressive!
Hi John, I really like watching the Tormach run. I could probably sit there for the whole hour while it drilled and tapped all those holes. The Superfly left an awesome finish on your fixture plate! The plate looks too nice to use in a sacrificial manner! I guess if it gets too dinged up and ugly, you could always make another one. One thing though, I think I would have gone back on the front Y axis and trimmed off another .020" so that I knew that edge was straight. Thanks for the video. -mike
You said thought about how to speed up your drilling operation before you went to sleep. Do you also dream about CNC when you sleep. Just kidding. Really love your videos!!! I'm in my 38th years as a toolmaker and it never gets old.
Another great video. Good timing too. My mill arrives tomorrow (Friday) and this will be one of the first things made with it. Will incorporate the dovetail idea too. Great stuff! Thanks
Wow! I love your videos... Never lacking for a great explanation :-) I'm not a Machinist, but I am learning so much, so fast, it's incredible :-) Thanks I should mention. My background is in Welding, Computing Sciences and Robotic Welding... I'm slowly working on a CNC Machining device, so this is really giving me a great education :-) Thanks again...
NYC CNC I learned on mainly Miller and Motoman Robots. However, the basics on every robot are the same... Once you're familiar with one, the next Make, is much easier... It's like spoken languages, they all do the same things, they just do it in different, but similar ways... Setting up a Robot to do a particular welding or plasma cutting job, via a terminal is essentially the same as one does to setup the parameters for a 3D Print... Set the print head temp, the filament speed, hotbed temp, movement seed of each axis... A 6 Axis Robot needs all of the parameters set... But beneath setting of parameters, there is a level of programming that the operator rarely sees... That's the software that translates the G-Code into movement according to the parameters... When setting up a 3D Printer, one starts with the base... The "board" one is going to use... Then they upload the Driver(like) software to the board... This is the software that converts the G-code into movement... Now, if one were to get right into the programming languages... Like writing the Drivers for 3D Printing boards or Robots, that's where it gets tricky... Many companies like Fanuc, Miller, etc. have spent years perfecting that software, but we can get similar software from Rep Rap for each board... and it's all public domain :-) The main difference between 3D Printers and Robots is the setup... Most Robots incorporate a handheld Input device and as an operator walks the robot through it's movements, he sets points where an action is recorded... Starts at the "Home" point and moves to a piece to be welded. Along the way he moves the robot and records points as not to harm the Weld piece or the robot... There are a few parameters to set during this process... but mainly the Path and Travel speed... Once the Robot head has reached the start point of a weld, the welding parameters are set... Voltage, Amperage, Wirefeed speed, weave (If any). All of those parameters are set in a 3D Printer by the software, with little room for adjustments... Unless one knows G-code Programming well enough to make the fine tuned adjustments... However, back to the Robots... Most of them do the same things with minor differences... Some newer machining Robots are capable of taking a Graphic rendering and machining an object via Graphic or 3D Photo and simply running a G-code like software... ABB and KUKA are just two manufacturers among many... Those robots are easily converted from Machining to Welding, Plasma Cutting and other operations... :-) I should mention... Robots have come a long way but still, they are mainly used to duplicate or replicate one specific item, hundreds or thousands of times... 3D Printers are essentially the same idea... When it comes to "One-offs" they are great at taking a 3D graphic and creating a duplicate, but the graphic must be precise... Then 10,000 can be made exactly the same... Prototyping has a lot more to it... I watched part of one of ABB's videos... They were Machining a statue from Marble... Not only did the Graphic have to be precise, but the parameters of the block of marble have to be incorporated... If they wanted to make 2 such statues, either the marble block had to have the exact, same dimensions or they had to input the New dimensions according to the New block... One-offs of that nature are very inefficient... In Robotic Machining the base material must also be exact or "Homing" must occur with every piece and homing may not be enough... Slight variations in Thickness, width, etc. can throw the whole process for a loop... I'm sure you understand... but precision requirements vary, depending on the operation... Welding is very forgiving, but machining is much less... Oh! I should add... ABB and KUKA Robots are just different, not better or worse... I learned on Miller and Motoman, but the same education could have be attained on either ABB or KUKA Robots... Many people, being familiar with one, tend to think that it's the best... Not so... Having no knowledge of Fanuc Robots, I was setting them up within a couple of days... and unless the parameters were all in Chinese or Japanese, I would have no difficulty with any robot... I'll shutup now :-)
Thank You for this video. Tooling plates are very handy for holding and I agree holding a workpiece in a good and rigid way is half the battle. You have a very versitile plate there and I like the care you give to be sure that you are able to do this without buildup on the tools which shows you have good foresight into the build and are thus able to not worry if you need to do something else. In lights out this discipline and know how is critical. It is refreshing you are so upbeat and even excited about your projects and this makes you stand out well compared to other teachers who are by their own right very good also. I suppose you are changing each tool manually? Thread milling has always been the best and I prefer that where I can use it. NPT's are really done nicely by that method. Where I am at now they do not believe in thread milling thinking it too expensive. I do not agree with that view however. Great job!
Yes that was the viewpoint. The explanation of that further was they felt like it may be too complex for most operators and would generate more problems. A broken tap oft times may scrap a part whereas TM is the better choice.
Nice Widget John, Ive use fixtures like that quite often in the past. Just 1 thing to watch for.... sometimes if you buy a single replacement jaw plate after a crash, you'll find it can be several thou different in height. Just double check the heights between jaw plates is always the same!
If you use the "hole wizard" feature instead of regular extruded cuts to make the tapped holes you would actually see shaded "cosmetic" threads. It's actually a much more robust and quicker feature than using cuts and I highly recommend it for a bunch of valid reasons, FYI...
Your video probably saved me some money. I was online, buying machining tools, and had to stop to watch this video. :-) Later in my Summer Of Awesomeness, I'll be building my 24" X 24" CNC router. I plan to use it to machine plastic. I have a production job I'll be running a lot with approximately 90 parts cut out of a 2' X 2' X 3/4" sheet of plastic. I was thinking about using an aluminum plate instead of a table base and spoil board and having the CNC router drill an array of holes that I can tap 1/4-20 to make it a giant fixture plate. My 2' X 4' CNC router has a spoil board and I had the router drill an X and Y lines of holes to use for nylon spacers that I use as crash proof low tolerance dowel pins to set up repeat jobs. On the 2' X 2' router, I may intersperse dowel pin holes with the 1/4-20 threaded holes, or I may just screw nylon cap screws into the 1/4-20 holes and use the heads as alignment pins for the part edges. That should be good enough for my low tolerance application. 16:40 The finish pass with the interrupted cut through the different sized holes sounded like Morse code, or signalling the alien mother ship. 21:15 I love the SuperFly too. I received the 5" fly cutter bar from Suburban Tool on Monday. I'll be making a SuperDuperFly that is a bigger beefier version of the SuperFly, with a 6" width of cut. I plan on making a TTS arbor for it, even though mounting a fly cutter in a collet is a major no-no. The SuperFly gets away with it because it's only a 3" cutter. I'll continue to use the SuperFly for material removal, but my SuperDuperFly should be a cross between the SuperFly and a conventional large fly cutter. I'll avoid large material removal rates and keep the RPM down to prevent slipping it in the collet. In other words, I should be able to get decent material removal rates, but I'll use it more like a fly cutter than a shell mill. You mentioned having good feeds and speeds for your larger drills but needing to develop better drilling recipes for smaller drills. Why is this such a big damned secret that everyone needs to do on their own? Is it that dependent on the machine? I'd think smaller machines should all do well with very similar recipes. I'd STILL love to see annotated tool tables, with a list of tools, and recipes for cutting steel and aluminum. As a self taught home shop machinist, that's the largest hole in my education. Knowing which tools people use and the feeds, speeds and other tricks they use (peck timing, etc.) would be the most useful info I could get. Thanks for the great video! I'm looking forward to seeing you using the fixture plate.
nice video mate. I was using the HSMXpress (free version) for a while and I found out the hard way (like you) about the drilling. with the chip breaking, partial retract etc.. it seems to feed in really hard. The only one that worked well was the full retract (deep drilling i think it was). I really liked the fact that HSM was easy to learn. Now I have learnt it, I found that I needed 3D milling but wasnt prepared to spend $10k on software. I had a copy of CAMworks which I tried initially but was hard to understand.. But now I have worked with HSM, I went back to it and things make a lot more sense now and it generates less aggressive toolpaths and saves the bits, also the drilling is great!
NYC CNC No I havent. I don't think the HSMXpress comes with it? I wouldn't think it makes much of a difference other than being more wizard focused over setting the depths/pecking manually.
If I remember I'll snap a pic of one of our sacrificial fixture plates tomorrow while at work. She's looking a little sad these days as I've done so much work on it. Still has brought in a buttload of money though, so it's all worth it!
I assume by now, 7 years later, you learned the benefit of carbide drills? For that many holes and zero problems. There are other HSS drills (I think they are HSS) that can plunge straight through aluminum. Still expensive. Still requires 6k spindle. This is a great video.
Interesting timing, I just was cadding one of these. I'm thinking I'll do my threaded holes 7/16x14 so I can use the clamps from my clamping kit directly into it.
I know this project is a perfect candidate for CNC, but do you ever find simple jobs to be easier on the Bridgeport? If you are just squaring stock, or doing a simple keyway, can you skip the Solidworks and just move the Tormach "manually"? Thanks for all you do! You provide some of the best education out there!
I like the idea, I am getting a Tormach 440 soon and something like this looks to be the ticket for doing all the 2.5 axis sheet aluminum parts I do, just need to figure out ap pattern for the 440
Love the videos John! New to machining but learning fast. In a situation where you need wood as a riser, use MDF instead of plywood. It is already compressed on it's thickness so it is more "repeatable" than plywood would ever be. With regards to swelling from coolant, MDF has to sit in liquid for a long time to be affected by moisture compared to ply wood.
I like to see a video of this of you using it. And do you drill and mill into it. When you doing flat aluminum parts and then flip it to do the 2 op on the back of the part.
Why are you using a centering drill? From the old-fashion stuff I read, a centering bit (there are 2 kinds) is for drilling a hole in the end of stock that is meant to be turned between centers. The weird shape is because you want to pack the end with grease AND have space for a dead center. Primitive, yes, but it does explain the shape of the bit. A centering drill has a large-angle start (which is what you want) and a lower angle shoulder. So if you're using more than 1/16" or so, the angle won't be shallow enough. Also, it's hardened all the way through, not just case hardened, so it's solid and won't be as likely to wander. Also, it's short. A hole starting bit is a better tool because you can use a 120-degree bit with 118-degree tooling. I think the idea is (I'm not a machinist, just a drill press owner) that you want the web to touch first, which is more durable and in the center, rather than the lips. From my various reading of antique and sentimental literature, the problem with the cutting lips of a twist drill touching the work first is that they will dig in and mess up your position. It's amazing how little it takes to get a bit off the path. Maybe you don't care---this isn't a jig boring operation! And this might all moot because you're using equipment from a great century that's stiff as a wedding prick but if that's so, why are you doing this step at all? TL;DR buy a hole-starting bit. Also, I can't believe you're running over 1 hour for a sacrificial fixture plate. Do you have a money tree growing in the back of the shop? Make your fixture plate and put a few mm of stock under the work! Sacrifice the sheet stock, not the fixture!And how is 1/4" of grip enough on a giant plate like this? Aren't you going to get a lot of buckling? Doesn't it make you nervous to have such scant bite on a reference surface? And why are you cutting off all that machine work? It's a damn shame. Hard to watch, for sure. Otherwise nice video!
You might consider investing in some Mitee-Bite clamps given the style of table you use and this fixture plate :) Specifically check out the pitbull/modular pitbull, Talon and Versa.
You ever try carbide drills? The carbide .201 drill I use is 8000rpm at 30 ipm, single peck, no center drill, with flood coolant. They last forever too. I'd imagine they could save you a lot of time. Plus you can also buy carbide drills that produce perfect ream hole sizes so you can skip center drill/ peck drill/ and reaming.
When chip breaking (partial retract) you have to be careful on depth. Smaller drills when I do it I'll usually increase the distance before the break quite a bit to make sure the chip evacuates the hole before it stops the feed and retracts .005" or so. I'm also running flood coolant though so that may be a bit of your problem running a misting setup.
akromix I also spotted a bit of a goof there on the cleanup of the adaptive clearing on the bottom of the plate. Looks like the lead in and out was a bit much and it left some behind. :)
NYC CNC Carbide drills are the only way to go unless its an oddball size you don't use much. Presumably you have a few common size drills that get used frequently, generally this stuff is available on eBay cheap if you're willing to wait. Although the smaller ones are not very expensive new anyways, and you don't get much choice as to what brand and series you can get that way. Generally a carbide drill will allow you at least to skip a center drill op. Although getting the chips out is way more important, the carbides will snap easy if chips start loading up. Run a chip breaker peck, or most of the time if you tweak the feeds you can get the chips to break naturally and straight plunge if you get a good tool dialed right in. I'm thinking you're right on the MQL min retract pecking. Personally I wouldn't feel confident walking away from those drilling ops with that coolant. The full retracts here and there are great to get some coolant down into the hole where the cutting edges are. Otherwise the things running near dry, which can be really particular. I would want to dial things up for that deeper drilling. If thats a form tap, personally I would spray WD40 over all the holes before running it with your MQL system. The VAST majority of times I have problems, its coolant related. So getting the coolant right, typically gives me the confidence to walk away from those long ops.
Frank In addition I'd like to add that you should consider to buy carbide drills with a special coat for aluminium, since it seems that you're working quite alot with alu. quote: [Run a chip breaker peck, or most of the time if you tweak the feeds you can get the chips to break naturally and straight plunge if you get a good tool dialed right in.] Running a chip breaker peck will usually damage the carbide drill. Feeds and speeds should be high enough to break the chips without it (given the hole is not too deep).
***** On a VMC if the tool is run at the edge, yeah. I don't think John is going to have the confidence to run that close on his Tormach. I drilled thousands of holes on one carbide drill in a tiny little Taig, ~6D. No problems, didn't break the cheap drill, but it did almost melt the spindle motor. The only way it worked was with a TINY peck, then a retract before the motor stalled. The Taig just didn't have the power to run the drill hard enough to get the chips out properly that deep. Repeatedly smashing the carbide into the aluminum, and retracting when the spindle bogged worked fine. I wouldn't do it in a VMC, but the Tormach appears to be closer to a Taig than a VMC.
Love watching your videos! I was wondering about your tool path though as it looked like it wasn't as efficient as it could have been. It looked like it started in a corner, drilled one hole and then moved to a location near the middle. Also when milling the bottom for the vice, when using the roughing mill, wouldn't it have been quicker to cut in both directions?
I would really like seeing a video on small drilling. I drill a 1/8 inch hole I have noticed when i drill 1/8 holes in the drill press it is quick chips clear well using the mill my feeds are slow and I have plugging issues. In the drill press I am literally stabbing the drill into the part probably .060 then doing a full retract. The next stab causes the previous chip to come out of the flutes. I could probably figure out the feed and depth of peck, but is there a way to start the first .100 to go slow and pilot then go faster the next inch? I might program it as 2 separate holes.
Wonder if it would be worth putting a reamed hole right in the center of the plate of a different size from the others. It would make placing parts on the fixture easier visually and make it a little simpler when finding center during set up.
(Anyone) Why aluminum? Wouldn't steel hold up a lot better? No mill just asking.... John always enjoy your videos. Your enthusiasm and love of the profession shines through .
Hi, Really enjoy the video's and the tips, keep em coming. One suggestion, instead of using wood under the stock try using 4 or 5mm Acetal sheet. Cutting fluids and moisture don't bother it and its kinder to cutting tools that break through (wood fibres blunt edges really quickly). Another plus is that the surface of Acetal sheet is much more consistent than wood, so less deviation across the piece.
Hey John, just curious why you don't seem to use the tool changer very often? Is it difficult to configure with HSMWorks? Or do you primarily use it for more production/automation tasks?
John, I'm trying to make this fixture plate as my first CNC project. Brand new to CNC and Fusion 360. I think I"m ready to start, but on my test thread milling holes , drilled with a 7/16 bit, (1/2 X 13), the threads aren't deep enough. I'm using a Tormach .3 single point thread mill and my settings in Fusion 360 under Passes are a thread pitch of .076923 and a pitch diameter offset of .0625, 2 stepovers at .03125 and repeat passes. Am I on the right track? Do I need to increase my pitch diameter offset to get the threads deeper? I'M THINKING FUSION FRIDAY! I've searched all over to try and find the answer for this and haven't had any luck. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks
I know Rob Lockwood brought this up before, but don't use an adaptive path to finish a floor (DAMHIK). You can specify stock material for a 2D Contour as well and finish your floor, use .01" for a finish pass. I like to take about .01" for a floor finish as well with any cutter 1/2" or smaller. Edit: and you're still using a center drill! Why? Edit 2: I've said this before: 2% of drill diameter per revolution is a really good starting point. Too light a feed will rub them dull real quick.
An adaptive path will have a tendency to gouge when you're removing a good amount of material just due to the lack of rigidity in the machine (any machine), so I would highly recommend a floor finish if your dimensions are important. The adaptive path leaves a neat pattern, but you can feel it for sure.
A screw machine drill would help because they are made with shorter flute lengths which makes them a bit more sturdy. Just make sure to get one with the TiN coating.
ikea plastic cuttingboards are pretty cheap .i think those would work better as a sacreficial board and are a lot more stable with moisture and stuff as for breaking a bit during the program : i wonder if you can have a photocell brindge to check the end is still on the drill / router / tap each time you start a or a set of holes that stops the program and sounds the alarm when theres a problem might allso be able to do the same thing with touching the work with the tip of the tool making / completing an electric connection (wish should allways be the same distance between the top of the workpiece and the bottom of the tool ) does mean you need to insulate either the cutter or the workpiece from the rest of the machine
Jonh quick question do you think I will be possible to machine an engine like the jabiru from an aluminum block on a tormach, no including the crankshaft,piston, camshaft and valves?
I would love if SolidWorks cam would support grbl hobby CNC. There are workarounds but they not work with the maker license. The CAM there is different.
So after watching several of your videos, I've got a idea. lol but really though, I have a 70 anayak 12x50" milling machine, and was thinking how hard would it be attach a z axis stepper motor , and build a small x y table that I could mount to the milling bed with some tee nuts? Most of the projects I'd like to cnc aren't that large, in fact it's the small ones that are a pain to do with any kind of precision. Have you seen any examples of this?
so basically the point of this is to hold down parts with holes in them? how likely is it that the holes in the part will line up with multiple holes on the grid?
NYC CNC SolidWorks. I've never used HSMWorks, but I imagine that Sloidworkd would just pass the hole data right over. In any case you can keep holes separate and make the entire hole pattern right in sketch.
Made in Germany *thumbs up* What about using a NC-Spottingdrill with 90° flukes? Deep and large enough to camfer your holes? I'm using this technique at my work and its fast and easy, and i dont have to worry about to deburring all my holes by hand ;) i also use fixture plates, but mine are made of mild steel, usually grinded flat on both side, clamped on 2-3 blocks to rise it a bit. (and get under them if needed)
Hey John, Seen a lot of your videos lately, any reason why your feed and speeds are so low in Aluminum? Is it a machine limitation? There's a nice calculator out there called HSMAdvisor that works really nice. It takes into account the machine power curve and contrary to it's name it can be used for drilling, tapping, boring, turning, profiling and more.
Do you ever use conventional over climb milling. I see in most of your videos that you're roughing in the same direction as finishing... the way I was taught was if you want to hog out a lot of material, conventional mill, only when you want a nice finish should you climb mill
Phil B Not quite the same in HSM. Frankly the easiest way to do it IMO would have been to set up a SW Coordinate System as reference geometry wherever he wanted it and go from there. In Fusion I tend to default to stock all the time.
Oh, ok. I thought maybe there was an issue with it and HSMWorks. Just now starting to play around with HSMWorks Express. So much easier than MasterCAM X2.
Can i as the difference between CAM and Cad as all the software I have used once you have drawn the piece it can then be sent straight to the cutter.? I am still learning and try to keep up with you guys.
***** In CAD you created a 3D model of your workpiece, which you then send over to you CAM programm. You use you 3D model then to create the toolpathes. There are probably programms which can do that automatically, though I believe those are quite expensive.
Wy do you spot drill all the way down an not just the tip white the 118 degrees the same as the dril now it wil rumble on the ege of the 60 degrees ege
Buy some lexan to throw under that instead of wood. Also, I love your vids so I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but why not machine holes and threads as you need them per job in a sacrificial piece of aluminum?
Hello, awesome video. What I've been looking for a while now when it comes to learn how to CNC. Can you please tell me what kind of face mill you used? Beatiful finish, I would love to have it in my inventory. Thanks a lot in advance. Best regards.
i think you are spot drilling too deep the first angle lines up with the angle on the tip of a drill and the second angle lines up with the angle of live center
RE : the birds nest why couldn't you build a very cheap rail 8mm , stepper and arduino controller to push an air gun to blow compressed air as it runs the length of job every say 5minutes to keep all cuttings pushed to a tray. Alternatively an air blower cylinder with holes every 20degrees adjustable height spraying burst of compressed air with a solenoid .. on 5 minute timer
RoboCNC Frees- & Graveerwerk Even if you only have a drill stand you should be able to buy a tapping head to use on the spindle. Have a look at this Tapmatic self reversing one on ebay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/321759912984?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108
Thanks for the advise wordreet ! Ans indeed I have been looking at these several times... A project like this would indeed be a good excuse to invest in something like that.. I do have a CNC mill, but no spindle control, so I could pauze at each hole and tap with the tapmatic using the quill...
Yup. I believe the Tapmatic has some sort of friction drive inside, but it also has a neutral point where there is no drive at all, so it stops if you ease off the downwards pressure. Then if you move the drill arm upwards, Tapmatic will spin backwards and out of the thread you just created. 10 mins of practice and you'll know how easy it is to work with.
I had made something similar a while ago. It drove me to figure out how to get my machine to tap (and the tool holders I needed). ua-cam.com/video/FA70hDrRWKY/v-deo.html I never thought about putting a step on the bottom. I move the jaws on my vice to the outside and hold the whole plate. Might have to do that to mine.
👨💻2019 👉TechPorn oh no 😲 sleep can wait 👍🤪☕☕☕ 🕺 👉🐨 oz straya mate! cheers🍻maybe a ☕ none my friends or family have a clue about tech - i,m the only 25yr spring factory worker techy Nutter in family that researches & watches this stuff i asked a few times what's in their PC's > 👉😳🥺no IDEA i just turn it on 🤷♂️🤪🐨 guess im on my own here!BUT son & Nephews know a lot THESE videos R ADDICTIVE to Watch
Can I make one suggestion? Where your vise jaws grip the plate machine a dovetail and make a set of master jaws for your vise with the mating dovetail in them. What this does is you don't have to close the vise so hard (this will bow up the top of the plate with a lot of vise pressure) and it also makes the plate more secure from pulling out of the vise jaws.
Edge Precision
What an awesome guy!!
I made one a few months ago, finally used it last night... It was AWESOME! Thanks for putting this out there, John!
Man, because of you I switched from Bobcad (gasp!) to Solidworks/HSMXpress. This video helped me a lot, as I wasn't sure how to offset the WCS when you flip the part. (I scrapped a couple parts trying to do the math, lol). For anyone reading this, HSMXpress is well worth the time invested. The Adaptive clearing makes even the toughest jobs so easy. The learning curve is slim. VERY user friendly. Awesome work, keep the HSMXpress videos coming!!
For drilling aluminum, try TIN coated screw machine length parabolic cobalt drills, you don't have enough rpm to take real advantage of carbide, would be leaving lots of money in the drill. Use a SFM of 250 or max rpm. That pecking cycle you found looks very reliable! A properly lubed tap in aluminum should last you 10K+ holes. A blast to watch you learning and showing more all the time!
yamahaeleven And a shallow angle spot drill would compliment it well! A 140° spot drill would serve well to locate a 135° split point drill.
Brilliant! I am a rookie at cad/cam cnc etc, but an Instrument Maker, all manual, your video I just watched is really informative and the mill is very impressive!
Hi John,
I really like watching the Tormach run. I could probably sit there for the whole hour while it drilled and tapped all those holes. The Superfly left an awesome finish on your fixture plate! The plate looks too nice to use in a sacrificial manner! I guess if it gets too dinged up and ugly, you could always make another one. One thing though, I think I would have gone back on the front Y axis and trimmed off another .020" so that I knew that edge was straight. Thanks for the video.
-mike
You said thought about how to speed up your drilling operation before you went to sleep. Do you also dream about CNC when you sleep. Just kidding. Really love your videos!!! I'm in my 38th years as a toolmaker and it never gets old.
Another great video.
Good timing too. My mill arrives tomorrow (Friday) and this will be one of the first things made with it. Will incorporate the dovetail idea too. Great stuff! Thanks
NYC CNC Yes, arrived on Friday. Ran air to it last week, ran electricity to it today and hopefully next week I'll make the first cut.
Wow! I love your videos... Never lacking for a great explanation :-) I'm not a Machinist, but I am learning so much, so fast, it's incredible :-) Thanks
I should mention. My background is in Welding, Computing Sciences and Robotic Welding... I'm slowly working on a CNC Machining device, so this is really giving me a great education :-) Thanks again...
NYC CNC I learned on mainly Miller and Motoman Robots. However, the basics on every robot are the same... Once you're familiar with one, the next Make, is much easier... It's like spoken languages, they all do the same things, they just do it in different, but similar ways...
Setting up a Robot to do a particular welding or plasma cutting job, via a terminal is essentially the same as one does to setup the parameters for a 3D Print... Set the print head temp, the filament speed, hotbed temp, movement seed of each axis... A 6 Axis Robot needs all of the parameters set... But beneath setting of parameters, there is a level of programming that the operator rarely sees... That's the software that translates the G-Code into movement according to the parameters...
When setting up a 3D Printer, one starts with the base... The "board" one is going to use... Then they upload the Driver(like) software to the board... This is the software that converts the G-code into movement...
Now, if one were to get right into the programming languages... Like
writing the Drivers for 3D Printing boards or Robots, that's where it gets
tricky... Many companies like Fanuc, Miller, etc. have spent years perfecting that software, but we can get similar software from Rep Rap for each board... and it's all public domain :-)
The main difference between 3D Printers and Robots is the setup... Most Robots incorporate a handheld Input device and as an operator walks the robot through it's movements, he sets points where an action is recorded... Starts at the "Home" point and moves to a piece to be welded. Along the way he moves the robot and records points as not to harm the Weld piece or the robot... There are a few parameters to set during this process... but mainly the Path and Travel speed...
Once the Robot head has reached the start point of a weld, the welding parameters are set... Voltage, Amperage, Wirefeed speed, weave (If any). All of those parameters are set in a 3D Printer by the software, with little room for adjustments... Unless one knows G-code Programming well enough to make the fine tuned adjustments...
However, back to the Robots... Most of them do the same things with minor differences... Some newer machining Robots are capable of taking a Graphic rendering and machining an object via Graphic or 3D Photo and simply running a G-code like software... ABB and KUKA are just two manufacturers among many... Those robots are easily converted from Machining to Welding, Plasma Cutting and other operations... :-)
I should mention... Robots have come a long way but still, they are mainly used to duplicate or replicate one specific item, hundreds or thousands of times... 3D Printers are essentially the same idea... When it comes to "One-offs" they are great at taking a 3D graphic and creating a duplicate, but the graphic must be precise... Then 10,000 can be made exactly the same...
Prototyping has a lot more to it... I watched part of one of ABB's videos... They were Machining a statue from Marble... Not only did the Graphic have to be precise, but the parameters of the block of marble have to be incorporated... If they wanted to make 2 such statues, either the marble block had to have the exact, same dimensions or they had to input the New dimensions according to the New block... One-offs of that nature are very inefficient...
In Robotic Machining the base material must also be exact or "Homing" must occur with every piece and homing may not be enough... Slight variations in Thickness, width, etc. can throw the whole process for a loop... I'm sure you understand... but precision requirements vary, depending on the operation... Welding is very forgiving, but machining is much less...
Oh! I should add... ABB and KUKA Robots are just different, not better or worse... I learned on Miller and Motoman, but the same education could have be attained on either ABB or KUKA Robots... Many people, being familiar with one, tend to think that it's the best... Not so... Having no knowledge of Fanuc Robots, I was setting them up within a couple of days... and unless the parameters were all in Chinese or Japanese, I would have no difficulty with any robot... I'll shutup now :-)
Beautiful plate, with the options of threaded and reamed holes I can think of a quick list of twenty jobs for it. Thanks for the great ideas
Thank You for this video. Tooling plates are very handy for holding and I agree holding a workpiece in a good and rigid way is half the battle. You have a very versitile plate there and I like the care you give to be sure that you are able to do this without buildup on the tools which shows you have good foresight into the build and are thus able to not worry if you need to do something else.
In lights out this discipline and know how is critical. It is refreshing you are so upbeat and even excited about your projects and this makes you stand out well compared to other teachers who are by their own right very good also. I suppose you are changing each tool manually?
Thread milling has always been the best and I prefer that where I can use it. NPT's are really done nicely by that method. Where I am at now they do not believe in thread milling thinking it too expensive. I do not agree with that view however. Great job!
Yes that was the viewpoint. The explanation of that further was they felt like it may be too complex for most operators and would generate more problems. A broken tap oft times may scrap a part whereas TM is the better choice.
Nice Widget John, Ive use fixtures like that quite often in the past. Just 1 thing to watch for.... sometimes if you buy a single replacement jaw plate after a crash, you'll find it can be several thou different in height. Just double check the heights between jaw plates is always the same!
Great video John! i would have recommended thicker plate but it looks good and is a life saver for clamping odd jobs.
If you use the "hole wizard" feature instead of regular extruded cuts to make the tapped holes you would actually see shaded "cosmetic" threads.
It's actually a much more robust and quicker feature than using cuts and I highly recommend it for a bunch of valid reasons, FYI...
Also, I'd suggest pressing in a tooling ball near one of the corners so you could easily and repeatably locate your x-y datums
Your video probably saved me some money. I was online, buying machining tools, and had to stop to watch this video. :-)
Later in my Summer Of Awesomeness, I'll be building my 24" X 24" CNC router. I plan to use it to machine plastic. I have a production job I'll be running a lot with approximately 90 parts cut out of a 2' X 2' X 3/4" sheet of plastic. I was thinking about using an aluminum plate instead of a table base and spoil board and having the CNC router drill an array of holes that I can tap 1/4-20 to make it a giant fixture plate. My 2' X 4' CNC router has a spoil board and I had the router drill an X and Y lines of holes to use for nylon spacers that I use as crash proof low tolerance dowel pins to set up repeat jobs. On the 2' X 2' router, I may intersperse dowel pin holes with the 1/4-20 threaded holes, or I may just screw nylon cap screws into the 1/4-20 holes and use the heads as alignment pins for the part edges. That should be good enough for my low tolerance application.
16:40 The finish pass with the interrupted cut through the different sized holes sounded like Morse code, or signalling the alien mother ship.
21:15 I love the SuperFly too. I received the 5" fly cutter bar from Suburban Tool on Monday. I'll be making a SuperDuperFly that is a bigger beefier version of the SuperFly, with a 6" width of cut. I plan on making a TTS arbor for it, even though mounting a fly cutter in a collet is a major no-no. The SuperFly gets away with it because it's only a 3" cutter. I'll continue to use the SuperFly for material removal, but my SuperDuperFly should be a cross between the SuperFly and a conventional large fly cutter. I'll avoid large material removal rates and keep the RPM down to prevent slipping it in the collet. In other words, I should be able to get decent material removal rates, but I'll use it more like a fly cutter than a shell mill.
You mentioned having good feeds and speeds for your larger drills but needing to develop better drilling recipes for smaller drills. Why is this such a big damned secret that everyone needs to do on their own? Is it that dependent on the machine? I'd think smaller machines should all do well with very similar recipes. I'd STILL love to see annotated tool tables, with a list of tools, and recipes for cutting steel and aluminum. As a self taught home shop machinist, that's the largest hole in my education. Knowing which tools people use and the feeds, speeds and other tricks they use (peck timing, etc.) would be the most useful info I could get.
Thanks for the great video! I'm looking forward to seeing you using the fixture plate.
nice video mate. I was using the HSMXpress (free version) for a while and I found out the hard way (like you) about the drilling. with the chip breaking, partial retract etc.. it seems to feed in really hard. The only one that worked well was the full retract (deep drilling i think it was). I really liked the fact that HSM was easy to learn. Now I have learnt it, I found that I needed 3D milling but wasnt prepared to spend $10k on software.
I had a copy of CAMworks which I tried initially but was hard to understand.. But now I have worked with HSM, I went back to it and things make a lot more sense now and it generates less aggressive toolpaths and saves the bits, also the drilling is great!
NYC CNC No I havent. I don't think the HSMXpress comes with it? I wouldn't think it makes much of a difference other than being more wizard focused over setting the depths/pecking manually.
If I remember I'll snap a pic of one of our sacrificial fixture plates tomorrow while at work. She's looking a little sad these days as I've done so much work on it. Still has brought in a buttload of money though, so it's all worth it!
Great idea. Soon as I get time I will make one!
I assume by now, 7 years later, you learned the benefit of carbide drills? For that many holes and zero problems. There are other HSS drills (I think they are HSS) that can plunge straight through aluminum. Still expensive. Still requires 6k spindle. This is a great video.
Looks great, I also hate removing the vise to work on the table. Will try to convince the boss to let me do one of these. Thanks!
Interesting timing, I just was cadding one of these. I'm thinking I'll do my threaded holes 7/16x14 so I can use the clamps from my clamping kit directly into it.
I know this project is a perfect candidate for CNC, but do you ever find simple jobs to be easier on the Bridgeport? If you are just squaring stock, or doing a simple keyway, can you skip the Solidworks and just move the Tormach "manually"?
Thanks for all you do! You provide some of the best education out there!
I like the idea, I am getting a Tormach 440 soon and something like this looks to be the ticket for doing all the 2.5 axis sheet aluminum parts I do, just need to figure out ap pattern for the 440
Love the videos John! New to machining but learning fast.
In a situation where you need wood as a riser, use MDF instead of plywood.
It is already compressed on it's thickness so it is more "repeatable" than plywood would ever be. With regards to swelling from coolant, MDF has to sit in liquid for a long time to be affected by moisture compared to ply wood.
I like to see a video of this of you using it. And do you drill and mill into it. When you doing flat aluminum parts and then flip it to do the 2 op on the back of the part.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing your process.
Why are you using a centering drill? From the old-fashion stuff I read, a centering bit (there are 2 kinds) is for drilling a hole in the end of stock that is meant to be turned between centers. The weird shape is because you want to pack the end with grease AND have space for a dead center. Primitive, yes, but it does explain the shape of the bit. A centering drill has a large-angle start (which is what you want) and a lower angle shoulder. So if you're using more than 1/16" or so, the angle won't be shallow enough. Also, it's hardened all the way through, not just case hardened, so it's solid and won't be as likely to wander. Also, it's short. A hole starting bit is a better tool because you can use a 120-degree bit with 118-degree tooling. I think the idea is (I'm not a machinist, just a drill press owner) that you want the web to touch first, which is more durable and in the center, rather than the lips. From my various reading of antique and sentimental literature, the problem with the cutting lips of a twist drill touching the work first is that they will dig in and mess up your position. It's amazing how little it takes to get a bit off the path. Maybe you don't care---this isn't a jig boring operation! And this might all moot because you're using equipment from a great century that's stiff as a wedding prick but if that's so, why are you doing this step at all? TL;DR buy a hole-starting bit.
Also, I can't believe you're running over 1 hour for a sacrificial fixture plate. Do you have a money tree growing in the back of the shop? Make your fixture plate and put a few mm of stock under the work! Sacrifice the sheet stock, not the fixture!And how is 1/4" of grip enough on a giant plate like this? Aren't you going to get a lot of buckling? Doesn't it make you nervous to have such scant bite on a reference surface? And why are you cutting off all that machine work? It's a damn shame. Hard to watch, for sure. Otherwise nice video!
If memory serves me correctly - you still love a fly cutter
Very nice, I need to make on on my mill now!
You might consider investing in some Mitee-Bite clamps given the style of table you use and this fixture plate :)
Specifically check out the pitbull/modular pitbull, Talon and Versa.
You ever try carbide drills? The carbide .201 drill I use is 8000rpm at 30 ipm, single peck, no center drill, with flood coolant. They last forever too. I'd imagine they could save you a lot of time. Plus you can also buy carbide drills that produce perfect ream hole sizes so you can skip center drill/ peck drill/ and reaming.
NYC CNC Nope! Just carbide with a diamond point drill (so you don't need to center drill)
NYC CNC www.guhring(dot)com/ProductsServices/Tools/?Type=18 its the bottom series. "732"
I want one! Very cool! Awesome channel!
I like your channel,good job,guy
When chip breaking (partial retract) you have to be careful on depth. Smaller drills when I do it I'll usually increase the distance before the break quite a bit to make sure the chip evacuates the hole before it stops the feed and retracts .005" or so. I'm also running flood coolant though so that may be a bit of your problem running a misting setup.
akromix I also spotted a bit of a goof there on the cleanup of the adaptive clearing on the bottom of the plate. Looks like the lead in and out was a bit much and it left some behind. :)
What I mean is the depth drilled before the partial retract. If that makes sense.
Why not use the Lakeshore carbide 1/4x20 thread mill to do all those holes. I have one and it works great.
doing great as usual man, keep it up!
For that many holes I think a HM drill would come in handy, would definately save you alot of time.
I mean carbide drill of course ;)
NYC CNC That's great to hear, looking forward to a comparison video ;)
NYC CNC Carbide drills are the only way to go unless its an oddball size you don't use much. Presumably you have a few common size drills that get used frequently, generally this stuff is available on eBay cheap if you're willing to wait. Although the smaller ones are not very expensive new anyways, and you don't get much choice as to what brand and series you can get that way. Generally a carbide drill will allow you at least to skip a center drill op. Although getting the chips out is way more important, the carbides will snap easy if chips start loading up. Run a chip breaker peck, or most of the time if you tweak the feeds you can get the chips to break naturally and straight plunge if you get a good tool dialed right in.
I'm thinking you're right on the MQL min retract pecking. Personally I wouldn't feel confident walking away from those drilling ops with that coolant. The full retracts here and there are great to get some coolant down into the hole where the cutting edges are. Otherwise the things running near dry, which can be really particular. I would want to dial things up for that deeper drilling. If thats a form tap, personally I would spray WD40 over all the holes before running it with your MQL system. The VAST majority of times I have problems, its coolant related. So getting the coolant right, typically gives me the confidence to walk away from those long ops.
Frank In addition I'd like to add that you should consider to buy carbide drills with a special coat for aluminium, since it seems that you're working quite alot with alu.
quote:
[Run a chip breaker peck, or most of the time if you tweak the feeds you
can get the chips to break naturally and straight plunge if you get a
good tool dialed right in.]
Running a chip breaker peck will usually damage the carbide drill. Feeds and speeds should be high enough to break the chips without it (given the hole is not too deep).
***** On a VMC if the tool is run at the edge, yeah. I don't think John is going to have the confidence to run that close on his Tormach.
I drilled thousands of holes on one carbide drill in a tiny little Taig, ~6D. No problems, didn't break the cheap drill, but it did almost melt the spindle motor. The only way it worked was with a TINY peck, then a retract before the motor stalled. The Taig just didn't have the power to run the drill hard enough to get the chips out properly that deep. Repeatedly smashing the carbide into the aluminum, and retracting when the spindle bogged worked fine. I wouldn't do it in a VMC, but the Tormach appears to be closer to a Taig than a VMC.
Could you post a line of code for the mini peck drill please? I would start using it.
Love watching your videos! I was wondering about your tool path though as it looked like it wasn't as efficient as it could have been. It looked like it started in a corner, drilled one hole and then moved to a location near the middle. Also when milling the bottom for the vice, when using the roughing mill, wouldn't it have been quicker to cut in both directions?
I would really like seeing a video on small drilling. I drill a 1/8 inch hole I have noticed when i drill 1/8 holes in the drill press it is quick chips clear well using the mill my feeds are slow and I have plugging issues. In the drill press I am literally stabbing the drill into the part probably .060 then doing a full retract. The next stab causes the previous chip to come out of the flutes. I could probably figure out the feed and depth of peck, but is there a way to start the first .100 to go slow and pilot then go faster the next inch? I might program it as 2 separate holes.
Wonder if it would be worth putting a reamed hole right in the center of the plate of a different size from the others. It would make placing parts on the fixture easier visually and make it a little simpler when finding center during set up.
Nice job John. Have you tried the multi point thread mills yet?
(Anyone) Why aluminum? Wouldn't steel hold up a lot better? No mill just asking....
John always enjoy your videos. Your enthusiasm and love of the profession shines through .
I'm assuming it's semi expendable anyway, would be easier to deck off every once in a while
Hi, Really enjoy the video's and the tips, keep em coming. One suggestion, instead of using wood under the stock try using 4 or 5mm Acetal sheet. Cutting fluids and moisture don't bother it and its kinder to cutting tools that break through (wood fibres blunt edges really quickly). Another plus is that the surface of Acetal sheet is much more consistent than wood, so less deviation across the piece.
Hey John, just curious why you don't seem to use the tool changer very often? Is it difficult to configure with HSMWorks? Or do you primarily use it for more production/automation tasks?
John,
I'm trying to make this fixture plate as my first CNC project. Brand new to CNC and Fusion 360.
I think I"m ready to start, but on my test thread milling holes , drilled with a 7/16 bit, (1/2 X 13), the threads aren't deep enough. I'm using a Tormach .3 single point thread mill and my settings in Fusion 360 under Passes are a thread pitch of .076923 and a pitch diameter offset of .0625, 2 stepovers at .03125 and repeat passes.
Am I on the right track? Do I need to increase my pitch diameter offset to get the threads deeper?
I'M THINKING FUSION FRIDAY!
I've searched all over to try and find the answer for this and haven't had any luck.
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks
I know Rob Lockwood brought this up before, but don't use an adaptive path to finish a floor (DAMHIK).
You can specify stock material for a 2D Contour as well and finish your floor, use .01" for a finish pass. I like to take about .01" for a floor finish as well with any cutter 1/2" or smaller.
Edit: and you're still using a center drill! Why?
Edit 2: I've said this before: 2% of drill diameter per revolution is a really good starting point. Too light a feed will rub them dull real quick.
An adaptive path will have a tendency to gouge when you're removing a good amount of material just due to the lack of rigidity in the machine (any machine), so I would highly recommend a floor finish if your dimensions are important. The adaptive path leaves a neat pattern, but you can feel it for sure.
Nice video. Have you tried using a shorter drill? That drill was pretty long for what you were doing.Also tapping oil really helps the tap life
A screw machine drill would help because they are made with shorter flute lengths which makes them a bit more sturdy. Just make sure to get one with the TiN coating.
ikea plastic cuttingboards are pretty cheap .i think those would work better as a sacreficial board and are a lot more stable with moisture and stuff
as for breaking a bit during the program : i wonder if you can have a photocell brindge to check the end is still on the drill / router / tap each time you start a or a set of holes that stops the program and sounds the alarm when theres a problem
might allso be able to do the same thing with touching the work with the tip of the tool making / completing an electric connection (wish should allways be the same distance between the top of the workpiece and the bottom of the tool ) does mean you need to insulate either the cutter or the workpiece from the rest of the machine
Jonh quick question do you think I will be possible to machine an engine like the jabiru from an aluminum block on a tormach, no including the crankshaft,piston, camshaft and valves?
I would love if SolidWorks cam would support grbl hobby CNC. There are workarounds but they not work with the maker license. The CAM there is different.
The holes in that plate look like they are too big. As if the tap only cut very shallow threads. Did the 7/16 and #7 wobble a bit?
john, what size vise are you using? max jaw opening and overall length of the vise.
So after watching several of your videos, I've got a idea. lol but really though, I have a 70 anayak 12x50" milling machine, and was thinking how hard would it be attach a z axis stepper motor , and build a small x y table that I could mount to the milling bed with some tee nuts? Most of the projects I'd like to cnc aren't that large, in fact it's the small ones that are a pain to do with any kind of precision. Have you seen any examples of this?
Say, what Canon lens are you running? Those shots are looking awesome!
Do you think you'll ever redo this for Fusion 360? Love the vids!
so basically the point of this is to hold down parts with holes in them? how likely is it that the holes in the part will line up with multiple holes on the grid?
John something I never understood, but so many tool changes? Couldn't most of the part be milled out with one small 1/8 endmill?
No way, unless you have a ton of time and endmills to destroy.
Why no hole wizard ?
NYC CNC use it! it rocks..
Oh yeah! Learn Hole Wizard and you won't look back!
Hole wizard is the bees knees!
New here, is climb milling better for surface finish?
Do you have a reason for not using the hole wizard for holes? I've found it a powerful for inputting thread and dimensional dims for holes.
NYC CNC SolidWorks. I've never used HSMWorks, but I imagine that Sloidworkd would just pass the hole data right over. In any case you can keep holes separate and make the entire hole pattern right in sketch.
John Carlton Damn dyslexic fingers. I meant Solidworks of course.
Thanks for sharing knowledge
Made in Germany *thumbs up*
What about using a NC-Spottingdrill with 90° flukes? Deep and large enough to camfer your holes? I'm using this technique at my work and its fast and easy, and i dont have to worry about to deburring all my holes by hand ;)
i also use fixture plates, but mine are made of mild steel, usually grinded flat on both side, clamped on 2-3 blocks to rise it a bit. (and get under them if needed)
NYC CNC also, why don't you clamp onto your machinetable? as i see, there are many threaded and reamed (?) holes? too deep or weared out?
Hey John,
Seen a lot of your videos lately, any reason why your feed and speeds are so low in Aluminum? Is it a machine limitation? There's a nice calculator out there called HSMAdvisor that works really nice. It takes into account the machine power curve and contrary to it's name it can be used for drilling, tapping, boring, turning, profiling and more.
Nice vídeo, how I must fix a 900 mm part when the x run only 600,? Is a simetrical part at the both sides, thanks, 🙏🙏🙏🙏
For the best results, would you skim the entire plate both sides first?
What tapping tool is that you are using?
Do you ever use conventional over climb milling. I see in most of your videos that you're roughing in the same direction as finishing... the way I was taught was if you want to hog out a lot of material, conventional mill, only when you want a nice finish should you climb mill
Nice video! It looks like you forgot one hole with the threadmilling. At 13:13 second row second hole from the top :P
what tool holder use you for rigid tapping in this machining? min 12:58
You should be able to select a hole as your reference point instead of going back to modeling and inserting a point. Works that way in Fusion.
Phil B Not quite the same in HSM. Frankly the easiest way to do it IMO would have been to set up a SW Coordinate System as reference geometry wherever he wanted it and go from there. In Fusion I tend to default to stock all the time.
@nyccnc how come you have given up upon solidworks and hsmworks to fusion ?
Question on the model, any reason you used the extruded cut feature instead of the hole feature for the threaded holes in the fixture plate?
Oh, ok. I thought maybe there was an issue with it and HSMWorks. Just now starting to play around with HSMWorks Express. So much easier than MasterCAM X2.
Can i as the difference between CAM and Cad as all the software I have used once you have drawn the piece it can then be sent straight to the cutter.?
I am still learning and try to keep up with you guys.
***** In CAD you created a 3D model of your workpiece, which you then send over to you CAM programm. You use you 3D model then to create the toolpathes. There are probably programms which can do that automatically, though I believe those are quite expensive.
***** Thanks I will track down the name of the software but it is used through Aduino as the driver.
Wy do you spot drill all the way down an not just the tip white the 118 degrees the same as the dril now it wil rumble on the ege of the 60 degrees ege
Also I do have a question which you may have answered in another video but.. Why a fly cutter over a facemill?
NYC CNC Nice! I might have to give one a try... As I have a little less HP in mine ~1.13.. it seems to have a lot better finish
What is your coolant system MQL?
I see you grow into real software and started use Solidworks, that's good now only left to grow a bit more and start to use Solidcam.
Buy some lexan to throw under that instead of wood. Also, I love your vids so I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but why not machine holes and threads as you need them per job in a sacrificial piece of aluminum?
HunterNugent because having a even pattern it easier to work with. you could do it that way but your holes won't be true to each other
Your videos about DIY CNC inspired me to build one my self... Thank you! Test drawing video on my channel..
I'd like to visit your shop one day but flight is over 1000€ D: Maybe next summer or the summer after it ;)
Im in Finland. Hope we cross our paths one day
Out of interest in the states , what do you pay for a block of Al ..?
NYC CNC Always awesome videos. Thanks. Where do you get your aluminum from?
Can i get a sample of that drilling G code ?
I've never seen it before . Please :)
NYC CNC Yes the one that peck retracts and then peck some more .
That's was good. Thnx
Can you send me that drawing file on mail? I also want to make the exact same fixture
Hello, awesome video. What I've been looking for a while now when it comes to learn how to CNC. Can you please tell me what kind of face mill you used? Beatiful finish, I would love to have it in my inventory. Thanks a lot in advance. Best regards.
i think you are spot drilling too deep the first angle lines up with the angle on the tip of a drill and the second angle lines up with the angle of live center
RE : the birds nest why couldn't you build a very cheap rail 8mm , stepper and arduino controller to push an air gun to blow compressed air as it runs the length of job every say 5minutes to keep all cuttings pushed to a tray. Alternatively an air blower cylinder with holes every 20degrees adjustable height spraying burst of compressed air with a solenoid .. on 5 minute timer
I really need to make this... (only i will have to tap by hand... Grrrr)
RoboCNC Frees- & Graveerwerk Even if you only have a drill stand you should be able to buy a tapping head to use on the spindle. Have a look at this Tapmatic self reversing one on ebay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/321759912984?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=108&chn=ps&device=c&rlsatarget=&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=108
Thanks for the advise wordreet ! Ans indeed I have been looking at these several times... A project like this would indeed be a good excuse to invest in something like that..
I do have a CNC mill, but no spindle control, so I could pauze at each hole and tap with the tapmatic using the quill...
Yup. I believe the Tapmatic has some sort of friction drive inside, but it also has a neutral point where there is no drive at all, so it stops if you ease off the downwards pressure. Then if you move the drill arm upwards, Tapmatic will spin backwards and out of the thread you just created. 10 mins of practice and you'll know how easy it is to work with.
I had made something similar a while ago. It drove me to figure out how to get my machine to tap (and the tool holders I needed). ua-cam.com/video/FA70hDrRWKY/v-deo.html
I never thought about putting a step on the bottom. I move the jaws on my vice to the outside and hold the whole plate. Might have to do that to mine.
tormach made in China or America ?
hour and a half? why not set the feed rate to 800 IPS? have you not seen Titan's video? lol
Or even better, why are you watching this video when you know better?
👨💻2019 👉TechPorn oh no 😲 sleep can wait 👍🤪☕☕☕ 🕺 👉🐨 oz straya mate! cheers🍻maybe a ☕
none my friends or family have a clue about tech - i,m the only 25yr spring factory worker techy Nutter in family that researches & watches this stuff i asked a few times what's in their PC's > 👉😳🥺no IDEA i just turn it on 🤷♂️🤪🐨
guess im on my own here!BUT son & Nephews know a lot THESE videos R ADDICTIVE to Watch