As promised here is an update of the progress on my families shop setup. This is the mill/driill on the ground. It's about 700 lbs setting there. The straps lead to the forks on my tractor.

Here's my eldest daughter Emily, 14. She directed me on the tractor and did the torquing of the mill into position. A good lesson in leverage, safety, and communication. A good start to working in the shop. Everyone has been busy cutting the metal for the stands and Kyle 12, has even been stick welding.

Here's the final setup of the mill. That's a 8 inch machine vise. It was a little long due to a cast iron mounting bracket that projected toward the tower.

Here's the answer to that little problem. The horizontal band saw did a nice job getting it down to size and a file dressed the burred edge to keep the surfaces free from scratches.

Here's the big picture of the shop area. I think the red line will add to the safety of the area, reminding the kids that serious activity is happening.

Hope to make some chips fly soon.

Kent

THAT is some really fine hardware!

I sincerely hope that no kayaks were harmed in the reclaimation of that floor space!

I could see that visectomy coming down the pike. Nice job. You will love the solid stance that hunk of iron gives to your machining. I'm sure it seems like overkill ... but it will be the ticket.

You're gonna have to pay attention while milling though. You only watch that little television during lunch break ... now ... ya hear?

Now ... wait ... that look on Miss Emily's face ... I've seen that look before ... somewhere ... .... I think it means something like ... ...... hahhaha.

Ah .... I see I can help you install a "power quill feed" feature. No fear .... you have everything ya need. I'll have to take a few pics. Let's see ... I might already have them .... be back ...

Gary

"Now ... wait ... that look on Miss Emily's face ... I've seen that look before ... "

Can you imagine:

"Emily....................can you help Dad for a minute"?

"Dad, not the bulldozer again?"

"Uh.................No Honey.........nothing like that."

Kent,

Wow! Any foreclosed condo's for sale next door.

Dude, you don't play around! Nice!

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2011 05:14AM by Bigbore.

Wow . . . that's awesome.

What's the computer keypad on the mill? Is it a CNC rig?

-- Jim

Jim,

I'll say, from reading, that the LCD is DRO(Digital Read Out). It tells the operator how far the table has traveled so they know the size of the cut. Depth of the mill bit if it's 3 axis DRO.

How did I do machinists?

Lon

Hi Lon,

Pretty good. IIRC ... Kent says that's 3 axis. Therefore: you will be able to .... for instance .... mount a tool cutter, and bring it to juuuuuust start to sweep a fuzz track on the top of a billet. Then, you can zero the readout of that vertical axis. Now, if you want to take .125" off the billet thickness .... you can make cuts down until the readout shows you that you have arrived. You'd do that by taking aboout half of that, then nearly the rest in a second pass .... and save about .010" for a final pass ... perhaps at a faster spindle speed.

You'd be able to track where your tool bit is in both length and width as well. Now ... I don't think this is set up as a "Powered" mill in three axis. With such, you could initiate a "start" position, and then direct the mill to describe a particular 3-D path thru the material. I suspect we're a couple of orders of magnitude $hort of that capacity.

How do you work without CNC readout? Let see if I have a pic ... yeah ... here ya go.



Note that I added a vertical steel slide on the left ... and mated it to a vertical steel panel on the right. Both are refreshed with a strip of tape, occasionally. Now ... in this "anolog" version ... hahaha ... I bring my tool bit to bear ... and strike a line across the joint of the tapes. It honestly can be diagonally if I wish. Whenever the quill is returned to position, so that the line is clean and as drawn, the quill is remarkably accurate to the same position.



Here, while inletting a trigger block into walnut ... I struck two lines across and under a pc. of 3/4" square aluminum stock, once my bit was cutting the base of the tube channel. Then, I milled down until the top of one line met the bottom of the second line. And, I'd gone to a depth of 3/4" into the wood. It's a common sense sort of thinking. And, the practice to make it work. Ha! You wait until we have that huge EMP attack, and that digital readout goes out, and the whole country is screaming and running for their lives. I'll be making $10k airguns, in the dark, with my tape and sharpie! Who's laughing then?



Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2011 06:15PM by barnespneumatic.

Yeah Gary, low-tech repeatability is where it's at . . . seriously. A couple of our new pieces of imaging equipment adhere to the same philosophy: massively over-engineered structures machined out of solid steel / extruded aluminum, then engraved with measurement scales so you can reposition everything *exactly* the way it was before -- just like your rig. And it works!

From what I hear, a big part of the CNC price tag is the software required to generate the instruction set to drive the mill, and of course, a trained operator to program everything.

-- Jim

Hi Jim,

hey ... wait a minute! Engraved scales you say? No tape? Permanently attached ... scales ...

Ya know ... you might have just revolutionized modern machining! hahahahah Next thing ya know ... they will "standardize" those scales!!!

If your machines are that heavy, they'll maintain their accuracy for you. My 19th century laser cutter, weighs an amazing amount. Bulk was cheaper then. Man ... reminds me ... every supply I order now ... from my 07 catalog because it's all indexed .... is costing about 50% ABOVE it's stated 07 price.

Gary

I suspect there will soon be a traffic jam of delivery trucks at Kent's as they deliver steel, iron, brass, wood, aluminum, cutters, holders, rests, more cutters, reamers, boring bars, and then go back for more!

Jerry,

I suspect that is why Kent put in that half mile circular drive! Clearly thinking ahead.

And, he has a few "patterns" which he can back engineer ... and correct.

I'm going to look into buying copies, from him.

Gary

Wow, that is really looking good. Put in a couple more tools and Gary will just stick around after the next shoot and build a couple guns...

Hi Jerry,

That's right! Man ... we can have a machining Seminar right following the shoot! hahah. Everybody gets to build a PCP to take home ...

That's a good looking shop! No doubt. I don't see any coffee cups sitting around though. Clearly, the shop is new. hahah. There are flat surfaces, everywhere, without stuff piled on them.


Gary

Kent,

Very nice, I am very jealous!

Looking forward to seeing some projects posted!

Pedro

Gary i worked in a shop that was still using a shaper. Poplar tool and die Bridgeport Ct.

Oh ... I've seen one of those run. Now THAT is a violent tool!

If you haven't seen one ... a big ole tool runs along a linear track, and rips a strip off the metal being machined. No rotary action. Like the opposite of running a potato over a slicer. When it's wound up, and the strips are coming off ... smoking hot ... and the arm is pumping .... whatch out!

Gary

Hi Guys

Internet has been missing for a few days. Hope that doesn't portend any difficulties with the DRO.. I've been doing a lot of learning on the lathe. I got rented a DVD from a online DIY site "SmartFlix". It is for the lathe "Professional Machine Shop Course, Lathe Course". It is very helpful. That and some PVC pipe has entertained me for the weekend. I've found almost all the nuts and levers and figured a few of them out. A far cry from being facile but its a start. I have a feeling some of the most basic skills will be the most difficult to pick up from these tutorials ex tool bit shaping and sharpening. I guess that's what they call the "tip of the spear" in this battle.

To the comments:
That look on Emily's face has mostly to do with me taking the time to click a pic while her cold hands are twisting on bare steel. She thought the PVC demo was cool tonight. BTW, she was instructed to RUN away and not try to "save" the mill, if anything started to go wrong during the move. Very Monte Python like, don't you think? RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!

That's right Jerry, the list of necessaries continues to grow! The circular drive is a safety feature to keep the UPS, USPS and Fed Ex trucks from having a head on and tearing up the big bore range. I've installed one way signs at the gates.

Gary, I just keep buying more flat spaces to put things on. Remember putting together the rolling two tier, six shelve, rack to have a place to lay the guns. Shoot I couldn't help but engineer three more flat spots on the lathe stand itself. These have expanded metal bottoms so the small parts, that I don't really need, can just fall to the floor for convenient sweeping to the dust bin. Heck, I have a lathe and a mill, I'll just make more parts.

The kayaks are hanging from the ceiling hoists. Got to remember to install two more hoists. The most important thing is camera angle. If I rotate 30 degrees in either direction the camera would reveal all those flat spots overflowing.

I think the tape witness marks are great! I just wish you would have told me about it before I waxed the mill. There's no tape in the world that will stick to that surface now!

Later,

Kent

Hi Kent,

Great post. Thanks.

Ah ... that's how it happens to us all. We START by hanging five or six kayaks from the ceiling trusses. Then we assemble a couple of acres of chrome rolling shelving. Even though we've moved the bulldozer outside, the UPS trucks just keep on rolling in! hahaha. Before you know it, you can't get your pencil out of your shop coat pocket, cause there's no room for projects like that ....

Wax the mill .... ah yes ... I remember those days .... ......



Have fun.

Gary

I'll bet it's been a while since the dozer got waxed!

Jerry, It's the dozer that does the "waxing" now. I waxed a couple of bushes for the last shoot! I've discovered that 1/2 inch steel doesn't rust thru very fast, just make sure your tetnus shot is upto date before you get on board.

Gary, I've got a few more items that will be required before I do any milling, but the list is fairly short. Enco will be happen to feed this bad habit.

Kent