An enormous THANK YOU to all UA-cam content creators for providing all of us with additional content during this very trying time! I can only speak for myself when I say you are helping me retain what little sanity I have left having been sheltered in place for the last 2 1/2 weeks!!
Thanks for ur time .i have just started milling as well as lathe work . I did the reverse of u and moded my multi speed metal band drop saw as a vertical bandsaw to use on timber . As so funny enough i wont to get into casting and plating so u have me hooked. As a fellow brisvagusin loved ur vids keep them up
You should have told us you deliberately designed the table length to match the miter gauge length so we could bask in your greatness. I would have totally bought it. ;-) Nice job as always, I really enjoy following along with your shop antics. Thanks for sharing!
Makes me wish I had been a machinist. Bravo. I have NO use for any of these skills but they look like the finished products give you great satisfaction. Subscribing just for the entertainment value. I have no idea how good or bad it is but it LOOKS good (Fernando Lamas)
Michael I'm not really a cheapskate but sometimes making something yourself is, as you say, very satisfying. I was looking at some machining content on Instagram last night and saw a picture of a machine with an almost identical scale, that is, black with bright metal engraving. Thanks for subscribing. Regards, Mark
Nice work. Another method I have seen to keep the table flat across the slot is to put a tapered pin into the edge of the table, spanning the slot. I think in those cases they only machined one side of the casting though and you can use the flat bottom.
The alloy does machine really well. Looks very good. It will be annoying as it develops dings and scratches with normal use but as you said it is a soft alloy. I can understand you not having the equipment to heat treat the alloy. I expect you would need a good size oven, but more of a challenge is needing an inert atmosphere likely some combination of inert gases. I am curious. The underside of the table is thicker for the mitre slot, and also seemed to be thicker at right angle to the mitre slot for what I expected to be the slot for the blade. You made the blade slot parallel to the mitre slot and did not use the thicker cast section. I am curious of your reason. My wood cutting bandsaw has the blade slot 90 deg to the mitre slot which is common, although I have seen some wood cutting bandsaws with the slot parallel to the mitre slot. Your fathers mitre gauge cleaned up very well. Dave.
Dave, I believe that the alloy will age harden but not really to a full T6 spec. Part of the challenge of doing a full heat treatment is the amount of time the metal needs to be held at very specific temperatures. The thickness in the centre of the table and parallel to the front edge of the table is to allow for mounting on the bracket that will be bolted down to the bandsaw frame. All the cutting forces are concentrated around that central hole where the blade goes. The rest of the table is really just for supporting the work and it only really takes superficial loads. I am trying for maximum rigidity in the junction between the table and the frame of the saw. It should all become clear in the next video which is about 75% done. Probably out late next week. Regards, Mark
I did actually remove a bit of the steel tongue where my father had drilled a cockeyed hole to hang the fence from a nail. I just ground it off until the hole was gone and then put it back on the table and lo and behold, it was exactly the same length. How often does that happen? Regards, Mark
It is quiet but I have no backgear so it doesn't have much torque and there is no quill so all the vertical travel has to be done with the knee. I am in the process of replacing it with a Bridgeport. I just have to figure out how to run it from 240V single phase! Regards, Mark
I don't know if that last Johnny Come Marching Home track is by someone famous, but listening to the drumming, I visualise the drummer with a stained DJ, a Village People moustache, and leering at the girl in the front row, as he does the final DA-DUM at the end of the verse. Very 70's. Table looks good.
When I first listened to that track I thought it was a bit lame but then I could see how it would work with the end shot for the video. I badly wanted to use Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Fanfare for the Common Man" but UA-cam would have slapped with with a copyright violation quicker than a Carl Palmer drum solo! Thanks for watching. Regards, Mark
Should make some T-Slot clamps as Randy Richards made for his Bridgeport mill. They sit low inside the slot and only clamp on the sides of the parts. Its an easy project and perfect for your classic mill.
I love looking at all the clamping kit that some machinists have. I did actually make some low profile clamps that use three pointed set screws in a cast body that drive downwards at a slight angle. They bite into the edge of the part so you can hold it down to machine a surface. One day when I get my own Bridgeport I will have to get more serious about acquiring the accessories to go with it. Regards, Mark
Shiny! I hope it holds up to use. I've had consistantly bad results with aluminum tool parts subject to sliding wear. Chips and shop dirt just eat them up. Carry on, sir!
I know it's not going to look good for long but my main issue is keeping the machine light. I have to lift it up and down from a cabinet for storage and I'm not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger. I will be doing some ridiculous decorative treatment on the table surface just for fun. This will make me extra sad when it does inevitably get scratched and shop worn. 🤨 Regards, Mark
Mark, Please, never try T6 - it is a very unforgiving process and NO amateur will ever manage it properly - most commercial places have stuff ups with it - I speak from bitter experience! However a T5 would have picked up that hardness quite a bit and would have made a world of difference to the machinability. The good book says 8 hrs in a fan forced oven (electric) at 225 deg C. However I use 8 hrs but at 165 deg C and it seems to work very well indeed (have done thousands of castings this way). The time and temperature are not all that critical after the 8 hrs turn off the oven and alloy to cool naturally. A domestic electric fan forced oven is quite suitable. Note though that the casting will can not be bent far after the treatment but that should not bother you for this use. I will email you shortly with some thoughts and calculations I have had re your running and gating efforts on the casting....Martin PS. If you get a better finish with HSS than with carbide then you are using the wrong carbide! In theory HSS can be made sharper (once when carbide was a new thing this was "truer" than now) but these days of micro grain carbide it is a marginal difference a best and one rev of the work and that razors edge on the HSS is gone particularly with a relatively high (7%) silicon alloy like 601- check out "smallcnclathes" for his thoughts on carbide - he has machined thousands of my 601 T5 castings
Martin, I did read up on T6 and knew that it was not something I would want to tackle. I had not thought of T5 though. I was hoping that the alloy would age harden to some extent. I take your point about carbide vs HSS but probably, like my father, I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to buying inserts. I know that Stefan Gotteswinter promotes the notion of lapping carbide to a razor edge and it seems to work really well for him. Regards, Mark
HI MARK,,,, I HAVE A CHOLCHSTER LATH ABOUT THE SAME AGE AND HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBELEM GETING THE GAP BACK IN ,, AS LONG AS EVERTHINK IS CLEANE.. REGARDS R.
Richard, I based my comments on a friend of my fathers who worked at Evans Deakins, a shipyard in Brisbane, Queensland. He told me that some machinists would refuse to remove the gap piece on threat of sacking because they knew it would affect the accuracy of the bed closest to the spindle. I did actually remove it when I refurbished the lathe and I think I painted the bed after it was assembled. I used a two pack paint and I am pretty sure it would crack the paint if I removed the gap piece. Plus, I did size the casting so it could (just) be machined without removing that part of the bed. Regards, Mark
Mark. Thanks for the video. Can you, please, show your milling head in more details in your future videos? I have similar milling machine (clone of American King) with detachable head, but it is slow. I am looking for high speed, may be lighter head design.
I can do that. I am still waiting on some parts though. The whole Covid thing has slowed down shipping big time. I just took delivery of some materials I ordered from China back in April! Regards, Mark
Presso, heat treatment for 601C is 160°C for 3-5 hours for a T5 if you gave the forging a water quench right out of the sand. That is if the wife doesn't beat you for using HER oven. 😁
I have my own oven in the workshop that I use for powdercoating. It has a PID controller so I can hold temperatures fairly closely. I guess it comes down to the cost of running an oven for so long for just a few parts. I believe that the alloy will age harden close to T5. Just at the moment it is quite soft but I will not be using it a lot. I might drag the bandsaw out three or four times a year depending on what I am doing at the time. Regards, Mark
Good Show Mate...as always. I'll have to remember "manky." I'll add that to my extensive vocabulary. I've had a few things that were sub manky. I do appreciate what you do and making the vids for us to watch. Be well.
Looks very good no voids or anything. Since most everything was redone, what do you say you call it Post-apocalyptic-bandsaw? Kinda fits our times huh!?
I initially resented the idea that I would have to buy aluminium stock to make my castings but in retrospect, I don't regret paying for it, (said the bishop to the dance hall girl). I did a maker's plate for this saw which declared it the "Phoenix" so sort of the same thing as post apocalyptic, maybe? Regards, Mark
I totally dig the wildlife footage, Mr. Presling, thank you for including it. The surface finish differs as a result of the change in feed rate. A fancy computer controlled machine would run such a project in constant surface speed. Might this sort of thing be hidden if you only have a manual machine by burnishing the surface with Scotch Brite?
Ahh, but I have plans for a fancy surface finish towards the end of the build.... My son used to work in a company that had pre CNC hybrid semi automatic programmable lathes with constant surface speed that avoided the issue of differing surface finish due to abrupt changes in feed rates. However, the circular marks in the surface finish were mainly due to adding coolant as the facing operation proceeded. Regards, Preso
Thanks for going through all the steps in preparing the table. is there any reason that the slot was not cut at the back of the table instead of the front, as I thought the cut in the back would be less of a problem with feeding in material???
You have to be able to feed the blade on from the front so it will insert into the blade guides and into the open doors and onto the wheels. I have seen some tables with the slot on the side but I more or less copied the design of the original steel table. Regards, Mark
Presso, Great as usual, thank you Sir. However I do feel that I must lodge a formal complaint with you for the dull ache now in my nether regions as a direct result of the sphincter cramping due to the upward direction of the trailing edge of the slitting saw. I suspected that you were setting us all up for a gag as the blade ripped the work up off the mill table and flung it across the shop (shed ?).
Joe, unfortunately I don't have a reverse on my horizontal spindle and by the time I had bolted the workpiece down and squared it all up I realised that I would have to cut from the left with the slitting saw doing an upward cut. However, the material I used in the casting machines beautifully and it was so quiet that I hardly realised that it was taking such a nice cut. I was standing on the other side of the work and I couldn't really see what it was doing. I usually listen for chatter or signs that the cutter or work is loading up but it all went smoothly and ended well. Regards, Mark
Great job Presso as always! Have you thought about hard anodize to help with softness of the table? I've always had the best luck cutting full depth with sitting saws. Thanks for the vid, really enjoy your channel!
Steve, I would like to anodise the casting but it is just a bit too big for my anodising tank. Plus, I have never tried anodising cast parts. I must give it a go though. I think the table will age harden to a certain extent. Freshly cast parts are always a bit soft but they seem to toughen up after a few months. Regards, Mark
I am using a 13 TPI blade and a blade speed of 70 metres per minute. It's good for steel but I think that 90 to 100 metres per minute would be better for aluminium. I would like to get a second blade for very thin material. Something like 24 TPI would be good. Regards, Mark
Interestingly, I did check out some brand new wood cutting saws of a similar size to the one that I was given and some did have aluminium tables and much better table supports but they were still rather thin and probably some sort of zinc based die casting. The one that I have now is rock solid and I must thank Mr. Pete for inspiring me to have a go. I watched a video he did where he cast and machined a table for a small belt grinder. Regards, Mark
I didn't get the notification of your last video. Had to go back and watch it first. I didn't get a notice of MartyTs vid from new Zealand either. I wonder what's up with the down under videos?
It's not just down under. I don't get notifications for some channels that I watch either. Maybe the UA-cam robots are working from home? Regards, Mark
I am glad you enjoy the wildlife videos. I am making arrangements to fund a volunteer wildlife rescue organisation using the monetisation from my channel. They do a fantastic job of looking after sick and injured native animals and birds and most are self funded. Regards, Mark
Pat, that was a conversion I did pre UA-cam days. It's just a little 4" Vertex rotary table that I modified with a 1:1 tooth belt drive. It gets the motor tucked away at the back of the iron base casting. The smaller Vertex rotary table doesn't have any slotted mounting holes so I made a cast aluminium sub base so I can stand it up vertically or bolt it down flat. I wouldn't want to trust it for aerospace work but it is OK for backyard engineering. Regards, Mark
I know! A friend of mine wanted to have some casting done in iron and he went to the only iron foundry within two hundred miles and I think his comment was that "It was like offering up your first born child in return for one casting"! Regards, Mark
what was the comment you made about one-upsmanship? not sure if it was this video or another in this series. it may have been referencing the guy on instagram that made a similar table, steve smith or some such? sorry i tried just rewatching the videos but now i can't find the comment. i think you included a link, was hoping it was a link to another youtuber. Thanks, I really enjoy your videos.
Raymond, the maker I was referring to was Steve Smith. He has a UA-cam channel called StevoSmiff ua-cam.com/channels/XgASq3yl2GEQytXPct3EpQ.html He had posted some pictures on Instagram of a bandsaw table he had made with an engine turned finish and I decided to go one better. I ran it by him first and he was OK with it. He is building a beautiful Alchin traction engine at present but he now documents it mainly on Instagram. Regards, Mark
Now that was a great video :-) but i have to ask... could you please make a video about your homemade vertical milling head? I got a old horisontal mill my self, and would like to ad a vertical head to it. Thank you. :-)
Henrik, That vertical head is a bit of a Frankenstein really. All the castings are aluminium and as such it is a bit too light for serious work. It is fine for machining alloy and light cuts in steel and iron but I have had situations where a big cutter has dug in and I was horrified to see the whole assembly flex as it stalled the motor. The spindle is 4140 steel and it is supported on two conical taper roller bearings. I have a preload nut on one end of the spindle and it has a runout of about .01mm. When I bought the Denbigh mill it came with a vertical head but it was mounted on the end of the horizontal arbor and by the time I mounted a collet chuck in the vertical spindle and put a vice and workpiece on the table I had about 50mm of travel left in the Z axis. The motor is a 3 phase 1KW and I run it from a variable frequency drive because I don't have 3 phase power in my shop. The drive from the motor to the spindle is a tooth belt with about a 3:1 reduction. If you are interested, I have put the 3D model on Dropbox for another viewer who had a Denbigh the same as mine. All the files were made in Autodesk Inventor but you can open them in Fusion 360 too. Probably some other 3D modelling software will import the individual files. There is PDF of the 2D drawings as well. www.dropbox.com/sh/ax9j3tjsmw3lskh/AADej0cDCQu94ZyyeIgUdB2ka?dl=0 You can email me if you have any other questions. My address is in the "about" tab on my channel. Regards, Mark
Hey Mark. Thank you for your answer:-) I use Inventor at school, so no problem. Thank you for the idea, I will try, and incorporate as much of it into my own little attempt, to make to make a vertical head. My mill is an real old German "Biernatzki" mill, and my overarm is with a dovetail. I hope that will help me a little, getting it stiff… Henrik
Glad to see everyone gets the requisite "dislike" ;-) Very nice. I've got my alloy on order, it may have shipped yesterday. If not, Monday. I'm excited.
Perry, I am keen to see what you think about using clean alloy. Maybe I am just viewing things through rose coloured glasses but the finish I seem to be getting is just so clean. I don't bother degassing or adding flux (a la Myfordboy) but I am not seeing any porosity either. Happy days! Regards, Mark
Time to build a gantry crane and attach that winch to lift off the head, so it isn't something you are afraid or loath to do. It would make for another video series also :-)
Luke, the winch I have attached to the mill does the job but it is still a chore to make the changeover. I am planning to get rid of that mill soon. It is a bit of a Frankenstein really and I really want to get a Bridgeport or similar. I do know that there is a bit of misalignment between the vertical head and the mill table. I can tram out spindle out in the X axis but the Y axis is badly out and I am not sure what I can do about it. Regards, Mark
I wouldn’t worry about the scratching from the vises. This is aluminum, unanodized, so when you start cutting metal on the saw, this will scratch and gauge pretty quickly.,
The finish I put on the table surface will be purely decorative. It's mainly in response to a similar build I saw on Instagram. I got in touch with the maker and asked if I could go one better and he gave me the green light. I always say, if something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing. 😁 Regards, Mark
Mark, Is the addition of the image in the screen grab a response to those that say you are not just a pretty face? There seems to be an increasing number of 'creators' that use the click bait approach to increase the number of views on a video; you don't need to do that as your content is always engaging and interesting. That alloy certainly seems to machine well it is a good find. I used to use the old trick of some toilet tissue in the spindle bore to stop the chips getting into the scroll but in these troubled times I might fill it with gold as it would be cheaper and more easily available! Keep up the good work
Michael, with regards to the thumbnail, I take your point and I try to restrain from cheap self promotion. However, I have over 110 videos on my channel and less than 7000 subscribers. I get, on average, 1500 views per video and I don't know why. I don't monetise any of my content and I don't have any paid sponsors. Maybe it's something to do with the UA-cam algorithm but it can be discouraging sometimes to put up content that seems to slip under the radar. I have seen videos with 500,000 views plus portraying some banal or misleading content usually involving some imbecilic "influencer" (is that even a word?) and you start to question why you are even bothering. Because of my background in education I feel it is important to share information, even if it is just to portray what not to do, and I don't expect to get anything in return. For what it's worth, I haven't yet sunk to the level of including my own portrait with my gob open and pointing to some explosion or such. God forbid I would sink so low... Anyway, end of rant! I must thank Olfoundryman for "encouraging" me to drop some cash to buy good quality alloy for my castings. I think he put it this way "I long ago decide to be a man who makes castings rather than one who reclaims scrap" I do appreciate your comments regarding my channel. Please spread the word! Regards, Mark
Ben, we have had two motorcycle accidents along our road, one fatal. The rider was way over the speed limit and collided with a vehicle backing out of a driveway. The road is two lanes with massive eucalypt trees on both sides. Many of the property entrances are concealed and yet some users treat it as their own personal race track. I get a bit nervous when you hear those bikes coming! Regards, Mark
@@Preso58 I understand. :-/ Sometimes the personality types that drive like that are not conducive to longevity.:-/ Great content, I plan on watching more this weekend. I don't do any machining myself, but enjoy the problem solving involved with a new project and incorporate that into projects that I begin. My grandfather was a Machinist and a Union Rep who was respected by both parties back in the 50s-70s. I come across some items in my basement that were items he brought home every now and then. I have an "anvil" (squarish hunk of steel) that has a 1943 date stamp on it along with a tapped hole on the bottom. "1/2" x 13" is also stamped on the side which helped when I wanted to chase the threads to clean them out. I hope you, your family and loved ones are staying safe! :-)
Happy coincidences by divine intervention my friend. But.. (snipped) There is always someone 14,000 kilometers away who wants to tell you how something should have been done, you know. 😵 Congratulations, nice work. 😊
I dont even have a mill never the less one to convert directions. I would have used a carbide router bit, a good hand held plunge router all guided by an offset clamped down fence. Aluminum vs. carbide just not as expensive.
I have used carbide router bits for rounding over edges on aluminium and they work a treat. I just get cheap ones too and keep them just for metal. The only thing about using the mill is that you can dial in the size of the feature you are cutting with pretty tight tolerance. I had to ensure that the existing tongue fitted the slot to within .02mm. If I were making the mitre fence to fit the slot it would be a lot easier to ensure a good fit without a milling machine. Regards, Mark
Well, according to the urban dictionary, it's a more socially acceptable way of saying a very similar but far more vulgar expletive. 😎 Even so, I wouldn't use it in polite company 😲 Regards, Mark
I can only imagine the self satisfaction you have casting this and machining it to this final form. How can anyone not like that? Thumbs Up for sure.
Thanks Gary. I must say I was pleased with the outcome and I had great pleasure in chucking the old pressed steel table in the bin!
Regards,
Mark
An enormous THANK YOU to all UA-cam content creators for providing all of us with additional content during this very trying time! I can only speak for myself when I say you are helping me retain what little sanity I have left having been sheltered in place for the last 2 1/2 weeks!!
To machine a thing of beauty from your own casting must be the most satisfying engineering experience ever 👌👏👏👍😀
Truly a work of art, from design, casting, to finish!
Very impressed with your willingness to do things the proper way. Well done.
Excellent job Presso! To say "it looks like a bought one" would be an insult to your casting and machining skills. :)
And purely by coincidence the fence lines up with the centre hole too! Well done. Looks brand new !!
Paul, If I had planned to get all those alignments it would have all ended in tears. I am still amazed that it ended the way it did.
Regards,
Mark
Thanks for ur time .i have just started milling as well as lathe work . I did the reverse of u and moded my multi speed metal band drop saw as a vertical bandsaw to use on timber .
As so funny enough i wont to get into casting and plating so u have me hooked.
As a fellow brisvagusin loved ur vids keep them up
I love the magpie. Nice work on the table. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Unfortunately, the magpies turn nasty during nesting season. A swooping magpie is more feared than sharks and crocodiles. 😱
Regards,
Mark
You should have told us you deliberately designed the table length to match the miter gauge length so we could bask in your greatness. I would have totally bought it. ;-) Nice job as always, I really enjoy following along with your shop antics. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for that. I know what you mean about the lucky coincidence. In all, I had three dimensions that lined up almost perfectly.
Regards,
Preso
Makes me wish I had been a machinist. Bravo. I have NO use for any of these skills but they look like the finished products give you great satisfaction. Subscribing just for the entertainment value. I have no idea how good or bad it is but it LOOKS good (Fernando Lamas)
Michael I'm not really a cheapskate but sometimes making something yourself is, as you say, very satisfying. I was looking at some machining content on Instagram last night and saw a picture of a machine with an almost identical scale, that is, black with bright metal engraving. Thanks for subscribing.
Regards,
Mark
Nice work. Another method I have seen to keep the table flat across the slot is to put a tapered pin into the edge of the table, spanning the slot. I think in those cases they only machined one side of the casting though and you can use the flat bottom.
Once again Mark you don't disappoint! Thanks
That was some wonderful work. Very enjoyable.
Great job as usual. Looking forward to the finished product 👍
Very nice, Mark!
Great job Mark. Enjoyed watching you do the machining very much! Greetings from Southport UK.
The alloy does machine really well. Looks very good. It will be annoying as it develops dings and scratches with normal use but as you said it is a soft alloy. I can understand you not having the equipment to heat treat the alloy. I expect you would need a good size oven, but more of a challenge is needing an inert atmosphere likely some combination of inert gases.
I am curious. The underside of the table is thicker for the mitre slot, and also seemed to be thicker at right angle to the mitre slot for what I expected to be the slot for the blade. You made the blade slot parallel to the mitre slot and did not use the thicker cast section. I am curious of your reason.
My wood cutting bandsaw has the blade slot 90 deg to the mitre slot which is common, although I have seen some wood cutting bandsaws with the slot parallel to the mitre slot.
Your fathers mitre gauge cleaned up very well.
Dave.
Dave, I believe that the alloy will age harden but not really to a full T6 spec. Part of the challenge of doing a full heat treatment is the amount of time the metal needs to be held at very specific temperatures. The thickness in the centre of the table and parallel to the front edge of the table is to allow for mounting on the bracket that will be bolted down to the bandsaw frame. All the cutting forces are concentrated around that central hole where the blade goes. The rest of the table is really just for supporting the work and it only really takes superficial loads. I am trying for maximum rigidity in the junction between the table and the frame of the saw. It should all become clear in the next video which is about 75% done. Probably out late next week.
Regards,
Mark
Haha. Wonderful work. Now The table itself is more expensive than the bandsaw.
Great work! Brilliant finish on that table
As for the miter fence dimensions, I think that's where you say "I'd rather be lucky than good" :)
I did actually remove a bit of the steel tongue where my father had drilled a cockeyed hole to hang the fence from a nail. I just ground it off until the hole was gone and then put it back on the table and lo and behold, it was exactly the same length. How often does that happen?
Regards,
Mark
Nice build, well done. Beautiful quiet mill you have.
It is quiet but I have no backgear so it doesn't have much torque and there is no quill so all the vertical travel has to be done with the knee. I am in the process of replacing it with a Bridgeport. I just have to figure out how to run it from 240V single phase!
Regards,
Mark
I don't know if that last Johnny Come Marching Home track is by someone famous, but listening to the drumming, I visualise the drummer with a stained DJ, a Village People moustache, and leering at the girl in the front row, as he does the final DA-DUM at the end of the verse. Very 70's.
Table looks good.
When I first listened to that track I thought it was a bit lame but then I could see how it would work with the end shot for the video. I badly wanted to use Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Fanfare for the Common Man" but UA-cam would have slapped with with a copyright violation quicker than a Carl Palmer drum solo!
Thanks for watching.
Regards,
Mark
Excellent work you have made a silk purse out of a sows ear.
Kudos Mark! Stay healthy.
Awesome 👍👍👍Thanks for sharing
Good job filming and great closeups. Nice job!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Regards,
Mark
I love the
“WARNING FRICKIN* LASER BEAM”
sticker lol
I know Im quite randomly asking but do anybody know of a good website to stream newly released series online?
@Rene Tony I use Flixzone. Just google for it =)
@King Eli yea, I have been watching on Flixzone for since april myself :)
@King Eli Thank you, I went there and it seems like a nice service :D I really appreciate it !!
@Rene Tony You are welcome :D
Good stuff. All worked well. Take care.
Great work Mark!!
Glad you liked it!
Regards, Preso
Should make some T-Slot clamps as Randy Richards made for his Bridgeport mill. They sit low inside the slot and only clamp on the sides of the parts. Its an easy project and perfect for your classic mill.
I love looking at all the clamping kit that some machinists have. I did actually make some low profile clamps that use three pointed set screws in a cast body that drive downwards at a slight angle. They bite into the edge of the part so you can hold it down to machine a surface. One day when I get my own Bridgeport I will have to get more serious about acquiring the accessories to go with it.
Regards,
Mark
@rrintheshop has free plans for those as well.
Awesome work Sir
Shiny! I hope it holds up to use. I've had consistantly bad results with aluminum tool parts subject to sliding wear. Chips and shop dirt just eat them up. Carry on, sir!
I know it's not going to look good for long but my main issue is keeping the machine light. I have to lift it up and down from a cabinet for storage and I'm not exactly Arnold Schwarzenegger. I will be doing some ridiculous decorative treatment on the table surface just for fun. This will make me extra sad when it does inevitably get scratched and shop worn. 🤨
Regards,
Mark
Mark, Please, never try T6 - it is a very unforgiving process and NO amateur will ever manage it properly - most commercial places have stuff ups with it - I speak from bitter experience!
However a T5 would have picked up that hardness quite a bit and would have made a world of difference to the machinability. The good book says 8 hrs in a fan forced oven (electric) at 225 deg C. However I use 8 hrs but at 165 deg C and it seems to work very well indeed (have done thousands of castings this way). The time and temperature are not all that critical after the 8 hrs turn off the oven and alloy to cool naturally. A domestic electric fan forced oven is quite suitable. Note though that the casting will can not be bent far after the treatment but that should not bother you for this use. I will email you shortly with some thoughts and calculations I have had re your running and gating efforts on the casting....Martin
PS. If you get a better finish with HSS than with carbide then you are using the wrong carbide! In theory HSS can be made sharper (once when carbide was a new thing this was "truer" than now) but these days of micro grain carbide it is a marginal difference a best and one rev of the work and that razors edge on the HSS is gone particularly with a relatively high (7%) silicon alloy like 601- check out "smallcnclathes" for his thoughts on carbide - he has machined thousands of my 601 T5 castings
Martin, I did read up on T6 and knew that it was not something I would want to tackle. I had not thought of T5 though. I was hoping that the alloy would age harden to some extent. I take your point about carbide vs HSS but probably, like my father, I am a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to buying inserts. I know that Stefan Gotteswinter promotes the notion of lapping carbide to a razor edge and it seems to work really well for him.
Regards,
Mark
Well done
The casting looks good Mark.
HI MARK,,,, I HAVE A CHOLCHSTER LATH ABOUT THE SAME AGE AND HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBELEM GETING THE GAP BACK IN ,, AS LONG AS EVERTHINK IS CLEANE.. REGARDS R.
Richard, I based my comments on a friend of my fathers who worked at Evans Deakins, a shipyard in Brisbane, Queensland. He told me that some machinists would refuse to remove the gap piece on threat of sacking because they knew it would affect the accuracy of the bed closest to the spindle. I did actually remove it when I refurbished the lathe and I think I painted the bed after it was assembled. I used a two pack paint and I am pretty sure it would crack the paint if I removed the gap piece. Plus, I did size the casting so it could (just) be machined without removing that part of the bed.
Regards,
Mark
Mark. Thanks for the video. Can you, please, show your milling head in more details in your future videos? I have similar milling machine (clone of American King) with detachable head, but it is slow. I am looking for high speed, may be lighter head design.
I can do that. I am still waiting on some parts though. The whole Covid thing has slowed down shipping big time. I just took delivery of some materials I ordered from China back in April!
Regards,
Mark
As usual informative and entertaining. Great ending. Perhaps you should change your channel to TOP - this old Presso!! Cheers Mick
Maybe one day!
Regards,
Preso
Presso, heat treatment for 601C is 160°C for 3-5 hours for a T5 if you gave the forging a water quench right out of the sand. That is if the wife doesn't beat you for using HER oven. 😁
I have my own oven in the workshop that I use for powdercoating. It has a PID controller so I can hold temperatures fairly closely. I guess it comes down to the cost of running an oven for so long for just a few parts. I believe that the alloy will age harden close to T5. Just at the moment it is quite soft but I will not be using it a lot. I might drag the bandsaw out three or four times a year depending on what I am doing at the time.
Regards,
Mark
Good Show Mate...as always. I'll have to remember "manky." I'll add that to my extensive vocabulary. I've had a few things that were sub manky. I do appreciate what you do and making the vids for us to watch. Be well.
C Barry manky? A good old English word from the east end of London mate, it's been around for yonks, ( much longer than yonks anyway!)
Just... outstanding video! Thanks for sharing.
Looks very good no voids or anything. Since most everything was redone, what do you say you call it Post-apocalyptic-bandsaw? Kinda fits our times huh!?
I initially resented the idea that I would have to buy aluminium stock to make my castings but in retrospect, I don't regret paying for it, (said the bishop to the dance hall girl). I did a maker's plate for this saw which declared it the "Phoenix" so sort of the same thing as post apocalyptic, maybe?
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 Never heard of that proverb, but it sounds dirty lol
I totally dig the wildlife footage, Mr. Presling, thank you for including it. The surface finish differs as a result of the change in feed rate. A fancy computer controlled machine would run such a project in constant surface speed. Might this sort of thing be hidden if you only have a manual machine by burnishing the surface with Scotch Brite?
Ahh, but I have plans for a fancy surface finish towards the end of the build.... My son used to work in a company that had pre CNC hybrid semi automatic programmable lathes with constant surface speed that avoided the issue of differing surface finish due to abrupt changes in feed rates. However, the circular marks in the surface finish were mainly due to adding coolant as the facing operation proceeded.
Regards,
Preso
You have been missed, sir!
Thanks for going through all the steps in preparing the table.
is there any reason that the slot was not cut at the back of the table instead of the front, as I thought the cut in the back would be less of a problem with feeding in material???
You have to be able to feed the blade on from the front so it will insert into the blade guides and into the open doors and onto the wheels. I have seen some tables with the slot on the side but I more or less copied the design of the original steel table.
Regards,
Mark
Presso,
Great as usual, thank you Sir.
However I do feel that I must lodge a formal complaint with you for the dull ache now in my nether regions as a direct result of the sphincter cramping due to the upward direction of the trailing edge of the slitting saw. I suspected that you were setting us all up for a gag as the blade ripped the work up off the mill table and flung it across the shop (shed ?).
Joe, unfortunately I don't have a reverse on my horizontal spindle and by the time I had bolted the workpiece down and squared it all up I realised that I would have to cut from the left with the slitting saw doing an upward cut. However, the material I used in the casting machines beautifully and it was so quiet that I hardly realised that it was taking such a nice cut. I was standing on the other side of the work and I couldn't really see what it was doing. I usually listen for chatter or signs that the cutter or work is loading up but it all went smoothly and ended well.
Regards,
Mark
Great job Presso as always! Have you thought about hard anodize to help with softness of the table? I've always had the best luck cutting full depth with sitting saws. Thanks for the vid, really enjoy your channel!
Steve,
I would like to anodise the casting but it is just a bit too big for my anodising tank. Plus, I have never tried anodising cast parts. I must give it a go though. I think the table will age harden to a certain extent. Freshly cast parts are always a bit soft but they seem to toughen up after a few months.
Regards,
Mark
What speed and bandsaw Blade tooth count do you recommend for Aluminum? I just got a Porta Band and was watching your bandsaw videos for inspiration!
I am using a 13 TPI blade and a blade speed of 70 metres per minute. It's good for steel but I think that 90 to 100 metres per minute would be better for aluminium. I would like to get a second blade for very thin material. Something like 24 TPI would be good.
Regards,
Mark
Good job. Looks like something you would get from the factory. Actually it's better.
Cheers
Willy
Interestingly, I did check out some brand new wood cutting saws of a similar size to the one that I was given and some did have aluminium tables and much better table supports but they were still rather thin and probably some sort of zinc based die casting. The one that I have now is rock solid and I must thank Mr. Pete for inspiring me to have a go. I watched a video he did where he cast and machined a table for a small belt grinder.
Regards,
Mark
I didn't get the notification of your last video. Had to go back and watch it first. I didn't get a notice of MartyTs vid from new Zealand either. I wonder what's up with the down under videos?
It's not just down under. I don't get notifications for some channels that I watch either. Maybe the UA-cam robots are working from home?
Regards,
Mark
Turned out nice I must say. I feel I must try casting one day, you make it look easy(ish)👍👍
Steve Elliott well at least Mark is brave enough to admit and show his failures.
Like the critter parts of the videos. Also you don't talk enough.
I am glad you enjoy the wildlife videos. I am making arrangements to fund a volunteer wildlife rescue organisation using the monetisation from my channel. They do a fantastic job of looking after sick and injured native animals and birds and most are self funded.
Regards,
Mark
nice table, thanks for sharing
Great casting! Now tell us about that cnc rotary table you snuck in at the end.
Pat, that was a conversion I did pre UA-cam days. It's just a little 4" Vertex rotary table that I modified with a 1:1 tooth belt drive. It gets the motor tucked away at the back of the iron base casting. The smaller Vertex rotary table doesn't have any slotted mounting holes so I made a cast aluminium sub base so I can stand it up vertically or bolt it down flat. I wouldn't want to trust it for aerospace work but it is OK for backyard engineering.
Regards,
Mark
Great video
Good Casting! Imagine how much it would have cost you if you had some other foundry to make it for you.
I know! A friend of mine wanted to have some casting done in iron and he went to the only iron foundry within two hundred miles and I think his comment was that "It was like offering up your first born child in return for one casting"!
Regards,
Mark
what was the comment you made about one-upsmanship? not sure if it was this video or another in this series. it may have been referencing the guy on instagram that made a similar table, steve smith or some such? sorry i tried just rewatching the videos but now i can't find the comment. i think you included a link, was hoping it was a link to another youtuber. Thanks, I really enjoy your videos.
Raymond, the maker I was referring to was Steve Smith. He has a UA-cam channel called StevoSmiff ua-cam.com/channels/XgASq3yl2GEQytXPct3EpQ.html He had posted some pictures on Instagram of a bandsaw table he had made with an engine turned finish and I decided to go one better. I ran it by him first and he was OK with it. He is building a beautiful Alchin traction engine at present but he now documents it mainly on Instagram.
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 ok thanks. @sgsengineering on instagram.
Now that was a great video :-) but i have to ask... could you please make a video about your homemade vertical milling head? I got a old horisontal mill my self, and would like to ad a vertical head to it. Thank you. :-)
Henrik, That vertical head is a bit of a Frankenstein really. All the castings are aluminium and as such it is a bit too light for serious work. It is fine for machining alloy and light cuts in steel and iron but I have had situations where a big cutter has dug in and I was horrified to see the whole assembly flex as it stalled the motor. The spindle is 4140 steel and it is supported on two conical taper roller bearings. I have a preload nut on one end of the spindle and it has a runout of about .01mm. When I bought the Denbigh mill it came with a vertical head but it was mounted on the end of the horizontal arbor and by the time I mounted a collet chuck in the vertical spindle and put a vice and workpiece on the table I had about 50mm of travel left in the Z axis. The motor is a 3 phase 1KW and I run it from a variable frequency drive because I don't have 3 phase power in my shop. The drive from the motor to the spindle is a tooth belt with about a 3:1 reduction. If you are interested, I have put the 3D model on Dropbox for another viewer who had a Denbigh the same as mine. All the files were made in Autodesk Inventor but you can open them in Fusion 360 too. Probably some other 3D modelling software will import the individual files. There is PDF of the 2D drawings as well.
www.dropbox.com/sh/ax9j3tjsmw3lskh/AADej0cDCQu94ZyyeIgUdB2ka?dl=0
You can email me if you have any other questions. My address is in the "about" tab on my channel.
Regards,
Mark
Hey Mark. Thank you for your answer:-) I use Inventor at school, so no problem. Thank you for the idea, I will try, and incorporate as much of it into my own little attempt, to make to make a vertical head. My mill is an real old German "Biernatzki" mill, and my overarm is with a dovetail. I hope that will help me a little, getting it stiff… Henrik
Very nice, thanks for sharing.
Beautiful, too nice to scratch. Cheers
Peter
Ahh, and it will get scratched too. Gotta use it though!
Regards,
Mark
Glad to see everyone gets the requisite "dislike" ;-) Very nice. I've got my alloy on order, it may have shipped yesterday. If not, Monday. I'm excited.
Perry,
I am keen to see what you think about using clean alloy. Maybe I am just viewing things through rose coloured glasses but the finish I seem to be getting is just so clean. I don't bother degassing or adding flux (a la Myfordboy) but I am not seeing any porosity either. Happy days!
Regards,
Mark
Mark Presling well I’ve been hearing that clean metal makes a huge difference for years. I was just never willing to spend the money on it
Mark Presling oh, and you know, lite salt does nothing except make your metal taste bad right?
Nice one. Thanks.
looks pretty good so far!
Time to build a gantry crane and attach that winch to lift off the head, so it isn't something you are afraid or loath to do. It would make for another video series also :-)
Luke, the winch I have attached to the mill does the job but it is still a chore to make the changeover. I am planning to get rid of that mill soon. It is a bit of a Frankenstein really and I really want to get a Bridgeport or similar. I do know that there is a bit of misalignment between the vertical head and the mill table. I can tram out spindle out in the X axis but the Y axis is badly out and I am not sure what I can do about it.
Regards,
Mark
I wouldn’t worry about the scratching from the vises. This is aluminum, unanodized, so when you start cutting metal on the saw, this will scratch and gauge pretty quickly.,
The finish I put on the table surface will be purely decorative. It's mainly in response to a similar build I saw on Instagram. I got in touch with the maker and asked if I could go one better and he gave me the green light. I always say, if something is worth doing, it's worth overdoing. 😁
Regards,
Mark
oh, I agree. I’ve been accused of that myself.
Looks really good! 👍😁👍
Mark,
Is the addition of the image in the screen grab a response to those that say you are not just a pretty face? There seems to be an increasing number of 'creators' that use the click bait approach to increase the number of views on a video; you don't need to do that as your content is always engaging and interesting. That alloy certainly seems to machine well it is a good find. I used to use the old trick of some toilet tissue in the spindle bore to stop the chips getting into the scroll but in these troubled times I might fill it with gold as it would be cheaper and more easily available!
Keep up the good work
Michael, with regards to the thumbnail, I take your point and I try to restrain from cheap self promotion. However, I have over 110 videos on my channel and less than 7000 subscribers. I get, on average, 1500 views per video and I don't know why. I don't monetise any of my content and I don't have any paid sponsors. Maybe it's something to do with the UA-cam algorithm but it can be discouraging sometimes to put up content that seems to slip under the radar. I have seen videos with 500,000 views plus portraying some banal or misleading content usually involving some imbecilic "influencer" (is that even a word?) and you start to question why you are even bothering. Because of my background in education I feel it is important to share information, even if it is just to portray what not to do, and I don't expect to get anything in return. For what it's worth, I haven't yet sunk to the level of including my own portrait with my gob open and pointing to some explosion or such. God forbid I would sink so low... Anyway, end of rant!
I must thank Olfoundryman for "encouraging" me to drop some cash to buy good quality alloy for my castings. I think he put it this way "I long ago decide to be a man who makes castings rather than one who reclaims scrap" I do appreciate your comments regarding my channel. Please spread the word!
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 UA-cam probably isn't promoting your videos because you don't monetize them.
@@Preso58 UA-cam notoriously doesn't promote non monetized channels because there's no money to be made.
"Hmm" thinks to myself... "Very similar to Abom79's channel. Similar good Shop Practices. I like this guy." Motorcycle drives by. "Yep, very similar."
Ben, we have had two motorcycle accidents along our road, one fatal. The rider was way over the speed limit and collided with a vehicle backing out of a driveway. The road is two lanes with massive eucalypt trees on both sides. Many of the property entrances are concealed and yet some users treat it as their own personal race track. I get a bit nervous when you hear those bikes coming!
Regards,
Mark
@@Preso58 I understand. :-/ Sometimes the personality types that drive like that are not conducive to longevity.:-/ Great content, I plan on watching more this weekend. I don't do any machining myself, but enjoy the problem solving involved with a new project and incorporate that into projects that I begin. My grandfather was a Machinist and a Union Rep who was respected by both parties back in the 50s-70s. I come across some items in my basement that were items he brought home every now and then. I have an "anvil" (squarish hunk of steel) that has a 1943 date stamp on it along with a tapped hole on the bottom. "1/2" x 13" is also stamped on the side which helped when I wanted to chase the threads to clean them out.
I hope you, your family and loved ones are staying safe! :-)
Happy coincidences by divine intervention my friend. But.. (snipped) There is always someone 14,000 kilometers away who wants to tell you how something should have been done, you know. 😵 Congratulations, nice work. 😊
Please could you tell me the size of the tool post on the student ,I would like one but there are lots of different sizes
Regards mark
Mark,
I use a BXA wedge type tool post and mostly 250-201 tool holders.
Regards,
Mark
Amazing...
Thanks for watching.
Regards,
Mark
Sometimes you get lucky.
I love it when that happens. M
I dont even have a mill never the less one to convert directions. I would have used a carbide router bit, a good hand held plunge router all guided by an offset clamped down fence. Aluminum vs. carbide just not as expensive.
I have used carbide router bits for rounding over edges on aluminium and they work a treat. I just get cheap ones too and keep them just for metal. The only thing about using the mill is that you can dial in the size of the feature you are cutting with pretty tight tolerance. I had to ensure that the existing tongue fitted the slot to within .02mm. If I were making the mitre fence to fit the slot it would be a lot easier to ensure a good fit without a milling machine.
Regards,
Mark
There seems to be something wrong with your pigeon...
What does “frickin” mean.
Well, according to the urban dictionary, it's a more socially acceptable way of saying a very similar but far more vulgar expletive. 😎 Even so, I wouldn't use it in polite company 😲
Regards,
Mark
Mark Presling Well thank you, You Tube has never been polite company has it.
pretty
So, who's the sheila in the thumbnail image?
Todd, so many attractive women are beating a path to my workshop door.... as if! 😁
jesus - i'd just have used a router to cut that blade slot
That was most interesting to watch.