Adventures of a newbie

[Ben17484]

Back to the milling machine power feed.

After successfully having two ‘learning experiences’ (failures):

I machined an adaptor that works:

I need to broach a key way in the adaptor to sit over the key in the leadscrew of the mill.

Having never done that before (the list of ‘have not done befores’ is big but getting smaller after these first few projects), I need to get on to YouTube and figure it out. I don’t have a press of broach set, so I think I can either do this in the lathe with a ground HSS bit in the tool holder, gradually moving the compound out each pass, or do this in the mill with the quill gradually feeding the table with each pass. any recommendations as to which is easier (or less error prone), or even a different way?


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[verbotenwhisky]

I need to broach a key way in the adaptor to sit over the key in the leadscrew of the mill.

Having never done that before (the list of ‘have not done befores’ is big but getting smaller after these first few projects), I need to get on to YouTube and figure it out. I don’t have a press of broach set, so I think I can either do this in the lathe with a ground HSS bit in the tool holder, gradually moving the compound out each pass, or do this in the mill with the quill gradually feeding the table with each pass. any recommendations as to which is easier (or less error prone), or even a different way?


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internal key way, I usually start on the mill with a small end mill and cut to depth and close on width; then, I use my lathe to slowly (in multiple passes) cut it square as you described.

I have a good press but a set of common broaches is still on my to buy list.

 

[Ben17484]

Finally done with the power feed. The coupler took me 4 attempts and the plate 2 attempts. I’m yet to get my fly cutter up and running (need to investigate how to grind the right tool) so this is just face milled hence the rougher finish.

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[verbotenwhisky]

Finally done with the power feed. The coupler took me 4 attempts and the plate 2 attempts. I’m yet to get my fly cutter up and running (need to investigate how to grind the right tool) so this is just face milled hence the rougher finish.

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Good work, functional is good

 

[Ben17484]

Good work, functional is good

Thanks. I was pretty happy with it. It’s the first milling project I think I’ve done (if you can even call it a project).

I had a quick play with it this afternoon, and without knowing how to grind a proper HSS fly cutter, I decided to take an extremely light cut with just a square bit (I’ll google/youtube tonight to figure out how to grind one properly):

Pretty happy with that! (Obviously the cutter didn’t span the entire width of the piece).

I think I’m more excited than I should be with having a power feed just playing with it this afternoon made me realise just how much easier life on the mill will be with this compared to hand feeding the X axis making the plate for the power feed.


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[Ben17484]

Quick one to make an arbor for my newly acquired SD5 and SD7 Tapmatic:

I need to do investigation on the arms/stop arm that these tapmatics I believe should come with as I think I’ll have to make them before I can try out the tapping heads.


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[verbotenwhisky]

Thanks. I was pretty happy with it. It’s the first milling project I think I’ve done (if you can even call it a project).

I had a quick play with it this afternoon, and without knowing how to grind a proper HSS fly cutter, I decided to take an extremely light cut with just a square bit (I’ll google/youtube tonight to figure out how to grind one properly):

-------------------------

Pretty happy with that! (Obviously the cutter didn’t span the entire width of the piece).

I think I’m more excited than I should be with having a power feed just playing with it this afternoon made me realise just how much easier life on the mill will be with this compared to hand feeding the X axis making the plate for the power feed.


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This might be helpful....

 

[Ben17484]

I’ve not had loads of time lately, but I have managed to add some “quality of life” things to my workshop / machines:

Double angel eyes for lighting on the mill:

Bolted some aluminium angle plate with MT3 sized holes to the DRO arm:

A similar set up for the lathe:

And this one actually involved a little machining - getting air to my cheapy misting system for the mill, I made an adaptor to take one inlet line, have three 1/4 BSP fittings come out and then allow the air out the other side where eventually it’ll end up at the lathe as well

Next up will be making the same type of adaptor/splitter to mount next the lathe for the cheapy cold air system I bought for it (are they any good? Should I just buy another cheap misting system for the lathe?)


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