What did you do today? (2013)

Terry, another way that I have used on unwanted large plants/ small trees, get a small plastic bag and put some Round Up in the bag, put part of the plant in the bag and tie it on with some string, a few weeks and the plant is dead, the last one I did was a Cherry tree, one of spread around everyones garden here. Ian S C

Hi Terryd,

A word of caution if you are going to use those cutters for milling HSS, in my opinion, two flutes are likely to be problematic because of the shock loadings. As I believe I am the first person to mention HSS milling on this site I feel I should offer some advice.You can mill hard metals, but let us not forget how hard HSS is and even though Carbide is harder it is also extremely brittle. For this reason, ideally, you keep as many of the cutting edges in contact as possible and so a 4 fluter or better yet a 6 fluter is recommended. Keep the depth of cut to perhaps 5-10% of cutter diameter and don't try to be too quick with the feed rate, let your experience tell you when you are doing it right. Milling HSS is not a job for the Hasty, but does have its uses.

chriStephens

Thanks Chris,

I'll heed your warning. I do understand the brittleness of Carbide and one of my cutters which I was going to try is a fast helix ripping type so I may be ok. It is just for experimental purposes really. I did get the idea from your earlier postings and thought that i would try. I am very cautios beleive me, overly so some would say but I will keep your remarks in mind and take small cuts. I'm treating the cutter as disposable and at 99p can afford it - just.

Best regards

Terry

What did I do today? Too cream crackered to say! But I can safely say I never realised that the Cambridge rush hour traffic was so appalling. I'm glad I work at home for a fair proportion of the time.

Terry: Following on from the suggestion by Chris I tried milling HSS some while ago. i did post the results on this forum, but I can't remember where. I used a three flute uncoated carbide cutter and it worked fine. As I recall the best finish in terms of Ra was when the swarf was coming off red hot. I find that carbide cutters can be brittle when stationary, ie, using them to 'touch off' on work but I don't normally have a problem with brittleness when cutting. It's just a case of getting feeds right and avoiding stepovers around 50%.

Regards,

Andrew

Well, yesterday really....I finished tidying up the wiring for the 3 phase variable speed kit for my Warco 918 lathe. The conversion works a treat and has transformed the lathe, especially when parting off. Should have done it years ago. Well 3 years ago anyway, when I started into this hobby.

In the afternoon and evening I completed the fitting of the 'Z' axis digital scale to mty X3 mill, attached the cable to the display and switched on and there it was.

Everything worked as it should and I checked the run of the scale against the graduated cursor on the operating handle and it followed exactly the readings on the display.

I need now to exchange the one sent in error and obtain another scale to fit the 'Y' axis.

The workshop is a mess as I have had every thing out doing this job.

Clive

Edited By Clive Hartland on 23/10/2012 09:01:41

Andrew, you beat me to it, there was quite a long thread on milling HSS, it was a year or so ago, it supprised me, I'd have never thought of milling HSS. I have done some major cutting of HSS, but using a grinder, to modify some HSS flat drill bits as used by the railways for drilling rails, they are about 27 mm, and about 10 mm thick, and with a bit of work make good lathe tools, but milling would be a lot quicker. Ian S C

Ian: Thanks for the hint, after a short search I've now found the thread containing my results for milling HSS, last but one post:

**LINK**

Looks like I remembered correctly, the finish was much better running fast and hot.

Regards,

Andrew

Today re-made some vice jaws, had a 6" Abwood vice in with some stuff I bought, the chap I had it off had made some new jaws for it but had some peculiar ideas about accuracy and finish.....so onto my 1920's T&C grinder (which also occasionally masquerades as a surface grinder) for a spin or two....

jaws1 jaws2 jaws3 jaws4

(wonder who will be the first of the self appointed elf & safety mob to start on about the grinders utter lack of guards etc.)

Paul, got one of those vices, decent bits of kit.

Whilst you have the grinder out remove the moving jaw and grind the top of the vise.

Then make a new fixed jaw 1/2" higher than the original and fit the old fixed jaw flat on the newly ground top surface of the moving jaw.

With two or thee sets of new vertical mounting loles you will have a vise capable of holding up to 8" wide pieces.

Oh BTW, nice guards .

John S.

John, sheer genius what a great mod....have to make some more jaws now lol

Not everyone appreciates the quality guards, a lot can't even see them

> I'm treating the cutter as disposable and at 99p can afford it - just.

Terry - do you jest or do you really have a source of fast-helix carbide rippas at 99p? We should be told!

Neil

I should probably take another picture, but the plates and mounting bushes, etc, are all done. I found a tiny bit of eccentricity; I think that it's because I put in a bit of backlash compensation in the Y axis, and *then* took the mill apart for inspection and cleaning.

Anyway, a tiny bit of filing made the bush holes ok, and the outsides - the eccentricity does not matter.

At least my little KX1-NU cnc machine works pretty well on steel, and I know I need to have another look at that backlash compensation stuff.

Another JohnS.

Hi Neil,

Just an eBay Chinese cheapo. I'll let you know how they perform when I get hold of it, in about 3 weeks probably

Regards

Terry

Do please update when you have tried them.

Is that the next generation of Model Engineers in the picture?

Neil

Today I have mainly broken my main computer,don't seem to be able to connect to the internet with it grrrrrr!!!

Mark P.

Hi Neil,

I will report on the cutters, and in answer to your second question - I hope so. I am building him a simple oscillator and boiler at the moment as an introduction when he is old enough to appreciate i and fire it himself. I am also working on a simple 2 1/2 gauge vertical boilered (DeWinton style) loco for when he is a bit older. I hope to introduce him to machine tools at a later date.

Best Regards,

Terry

I had a busy day making some aluminium wheel spacers

Check out my album for images as I'm unsure how to post them on a thread 

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/sites/7/images/member_albums/110912/385121.jpg

Edited By Kevin Fenrich on 12/11/2012 21:36:03

Edited By Kevin Fenrich on 12/11/2012 21:37:42

Had the usual morning coffee in bed followed by breakfast, took the missus shopping then cleared off to the gym for a couple of hours, then followed lunch, then a cuppa in front of the tele!

Waded into unpacking umpteen boxes of tools and gear I transport to France and back twice a year! Then spent a couple of hours going crosseyed trawling eBay and car sales sites, looking for a replacement car after ours decided to lunch itself in France (fallout from a failed driveshaft on the autoroute and unbelievable peripheral carnage)!

Also spent an age trawling eBay's Mac computer sales ads hoping I'll find the holy grail of cyber life for little money and posting a topic on here hoping to be persuaded I'm doing the right thing ..........and at present having my right ear chewed by a very dischuffed wife for sitting in front of this monitor for so long instead of keeping her company ..............

Ah well, tomorrow's another day

John

Still playing with the laser cutter running the same program over and over on different materials to see what the best settings are for engraving and cutting.

Tedious but it will pay off.

Found out you can make business cards out of 1mm thick stainless sheet and the edges don't crinkle like the card ones do

John S.